Police Minister Mark Mitchell has made – and subsequently walked back – an allegation of a “corrupt police executive” with regards to how emails to his office complaining of Jevon McSkimming’s behaviour were handled.
The comments were made in an interview with Q+A, which was recorded on Friday.
Thirty-six complaints about McSkimming’s behaviour were emailed to Mitchell’s parliamentary address.
Along with these, the woman making the complaints had attempted to use a range of official and unofficial channels, including the police 105 online reporting system, and public comments on social media.
Mitchell previously said the complaints were triaged by a ministerial staffer who passed them on to police staff seconded to the office, and not seen by either himself or his political staff.
“A protocol had been put in place from the commissioner's office to say that these emails, any emails relating to Jevon McSkimming, were to be forward straight through to his office, where he would deal with them without me having visibility on them,” said Mitchell.
Police Commissioner says new graduates shouldn’t let the case “distract” them from their important work. (Source: 1News)
“The system that works in my office had worked up until the time we had a corrupt police executive. That is where the failure was.
"It was not in the system. It was the fact that we were coming up against a corrupt police executive, and that is where the failure was."
He added that this was his personal view, and not that of the Government.
"Having seen what's happened, seeing the behaviour that's been perpetrated, seeing the way the victim has been treated, seeing the way that power has been used to subvert the processes in an intentional way, then I think a lot of people would probably, like I said, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.”
Immediately after the interview was recorded, Q+A sought comment from all officers who at the time in question were serving on the national executive. No responses were received.
But yesterday, the minister’s office contacted Q+A with a follow-up statement.
Over several years, the complainant wrote 300 emails about the offences of Jevon McSkimming, only to be ignored and then persecuted. (Source: 1News)
“Regarding my comments on corruption, I acknowledge that the IPCA report did not use the words corrupt or corruption and on reflection I misspoke.
"Like most New Zealanders, I am personally disgusted by the behaviour highlighted in the IPCA report,” said Mitchell.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority report released this week did not use the words corrupt or corruption to describe police actions.
The report did find that in handling complaints about McSkimming, senior police intentionally sought to influence the investigative process.
“Standard processes, including those intended to ensure that allegations against officers are handled with appropriate care and independence, were deliberately bypassed. There was a suggestion that Police Integrity and Conduct did not need to become involved.”
Jevon McSkimming met a woman nearly half his age and, weeks later, got her a job close to his office. (Source: 1News)
And although they didn’t find evidence of collusion, they did find senior officers, including the former commissioner, attempted to rush investigations to help McSkimming’s application for commissioner, and failed to recognise the inappropriateness of their actions.
“Once a decision was made in October 2024 to launch a proper investigation into the matter, senior officers, including the [former] commissioner, attempted to shape its approach so as to bring it to a rapid and premature conclusion.
"We have been unable to identify any collusion in this respect.”
Under the terms of the IPCA report, the “police executive” is defined as officers and employees serving at commissioner or deputy commissioner-equivalent level.
The current version of the Police Manual, published online, defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power or the lack of integrity or honesty for private gain.”
Examples include “deciding not to take some action, such as to investigate or highlight some corrupt activity by a person, when that inaction improperly benefits them, you, or some other person,” as well as “intentionally circumventing police policy or procedure in order to obtain an advantage for themselves or another person; e.g. manipulating an appointment process to appoint a person preferred by the panel chair rather than the applicant with the most merit.”
Since leaving the role of police commissioner, Andrew Coster has been the chief executive of the Social Investment Agency. He is currently on leave from that role.
Mitchell said the new police commissioner, Richard Chambers, has accepted all of the IPCA’s recommendations.
“He had already started taking positive steps since becoming commissioner, because we had identified that things had got a bit loose and that we needed to tighten up and get a fresh focus back on standards and integrity.”
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of NZ on Air
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