A police officer’s choice to force a teenager to the ground and handcuff her, breaking her collarbone, was unjustified, the police watchdog has found.
The findings were part of an investigation by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) into the 5 November incident in 2020 on the outskirts of Taupō.
The teen, 17, was driving her family's car while on a learner licence. Despite not being able to drive with a passenger – the girl’s friend, 16, was in the car with her.
The two girls were drinking alcohol, and the 17-year-old was above the legal limit for someone aged under 20.
It was raining, which led to the girl losing control of the vehicle while driving through a downhill corner.
The vehicle went across the road, down a grass bank and rolled through some farm fences before stopping on its wheels in a paddock. Both teens escaped after the airbags activated.
A farmer heard the crash and saw the two clambering out of the vehicle – carrying alcohol as they walked away from the wreck. He called emergency services.
When police arrived, they immediately started looking for the two young women, who were hiding in a thick bush about 300 metres from the crash — near the officer’s parked cars.
The 17-year-old called her grandfather, telling him “she was in trouble and hiding from Police after crashing the car”. He told the girl to hand herself in, but she refused.
The grandfather and the girl's mother drove to the scene and started looking for the pair with police. The grandfather told officers they were likely close, based on the previous phone call.
After calling out to the pair, with no response — a dog handler was called in.
When the dog arrived, it tracked the girls to the nearby bush where they were hiding.
“They appeared wet and cold and had with them alcohol they had taken from the car,” the IPCA said.
When the officer who found them asked the pair to come out of the bush, they didn't move. The 16-year-old would eventually emerge, but the 17-year-old wouldn’t.
To get her out, the officer reached into the bush and grabbed the teen “by her arm or clothing”.
While holding her, the girl swore at the officer and tried to push him away. The other girl was “calling out to her to not resist”.
As he led the girl to the others, the officer forced her to the ground “face down” and handcuffed her.
“I was thinking this girl wants to break away from me, she’s trying to trip me up, she’s now gone into the assaultive mode of trying to trip me up,” the officer told the IPCA.
While on the ground, the girl screamed at the officer and said he broke her collarbone.
“I felt it snap. My face got thrown into the ground, and I was just, I couldn’t see cos my vision just went all tipped, and I just went all tipped, and I just screamed,” she said.
“And then I started screaming, ‘he just broke my collarbone'.”
She was later taken to hospital, and it was confirmed her collarbone was broken. However, the IPCA said the cause of the injury was “unclear”.
Police say: “During the course of the arrest, the woman was injured and suffered a broken collarbone.”
Describing the incident, the girl's grandfather said the officer “dumped her on, dropped her on her side”, and her “legs came off the ground”.
Her mother said: “I wouldn’t say he threw her on the ground like slamming her down, but he did place her quite hard onto her front.”
The girl acknowledged she was resisting arrest but denied trying to trip the officer.
The officer said he did not intend to injure the teen with his actions. After the incident, he was charged with male assaults female. He was acquitted in September 2023.
Use of force 'unjustified and unnecessary'
In their judgement, the IPCA said the officer's use of force was “unjustified and unnecessary”.
“On the evidence of eyewitnesses, the officer’s actions in taking Ms Z to the ground were an unnecessary use of force when he already had her under control.
“We found that, on balance, Officer A was unjustified in forcing Ms Z to the ground in the way he did.”
Police acknowledged the IPCA’s findings — confirming the girl was injured during the incident.
It also confirmed the officer still works for police.
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