The credibility of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is under serious threat. The simmering public discontent at the role and function of the authority that has been bubbling along for a number of years has reached a level that cannot be ignored.

That is why the Green Party opposed the reappointment of Justice Borrin as the head of the PCA last week. It was not an attack on his personal integrity. It was simply recognising the massive problem faced by the PCA and the urgent need for a fresh start.

The government has recognised this with the introduction of the Independent Police Complaints Authority Bill to parliament. That bill is an attempt to reassure the public about the independence of the authority, and to try to put some investigative grunt into it.

Those changes have now been put on hold while we await the outcome of the inquiry into the investigation of rape allegations against the police, and into the police culture current at the time of those allegations. The Greens hope that further changes needed to the PCA legislation will come out of those investigations.

I had the chance to question Judge Borrin at a Select Committee hearing last year. What worried me was that there was no acceptance by him that public unease is anything more than a problem of perception. He refused to accept that there is a substantive problem with the way the Authority conducts its investigations.

Those problems may not be of the Authorities making. The legislation governing the PCA and the significant resource constraints it has faced has meant that complaints against the police are conducted by police officers, often work colleagues and personal friends of the complainee.

It is no surprise that people have formed the conclusion that complaining about the police is a waste of time because it just means "police investigating their mates". That is pretty much exactly what it means.

For Judge Borrin to believe that this is simply a problem of perception, rather than a significant and systemic bias is a bit of a worry.

Added to those problems is the massive backlog in investigating complaints with delays of such length that investigation seems pointless when it finally comes around. Green MP Keith Locke has been waiting for four and a half years for a judgement relating to police treatment of protests against a visiting Chinese leader in 1999.

Following the inquiry into the treatment of the rape allegations, the new legislation will finish its passage through parliament. With the reconfigured PCA, the new Independent Police Complaints Authority, it is important that a new culture develop within the authority. The authority must have the confidence of the public, and it must hold that confidence. That is why a new head is needed.

Generating public confidence will be hard enough in any event, as finding experienced investigators who are able to conduct inquiries but are neither serving police or ex-police, will be difficult. The only hope the new authority has of holding public confidence is by demonstrating a confident and courageous approach to investigations of complaints against the police.

We like to believe that the New Zealand police is largely free of systemic or institutionalised financial corruption, unlike some of our neighbours in the region. The police have, however, been accused of institutional racism, sexism, bullying, falsifying evidence and intimidatory tactics and those accusations have sometimes been proven.

Of equal concern is that there appears to be a strong cover-up culture in the police. If we want a police force that is largely free of corruption, the only way of achieving that is to vigorously investigate and deal with any examples of it.

We cannot rely on the police to do that. The natural response of the police, as with any professional body, is to give the benefit of the doubt to its own members. That is why a strong, independent, and vigorous Police Complaints Authority is essential. It's a matter of trust.

Is it about we time we got a truly independent PCA? And is it possible?
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