Officer used police database to find driver blocking his car

Wednesday, 10 July 2019, 5:20 pm
Article: RNZ

A police officer has been disciplined for using the national database to track down the owner of a vehicle blocking his parked car.

Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) investigated the actions of an off-duty officer in the Wellington district.

The officer found his parked car blocked by another vehicle.

He accessed the database to find details of the registered owner, so he could call them and get them to move their car.

The authority said the police carried out an employment investigation and found the actions breached police policy.

On Tuesday, in a separate case, it emerged Auckland police were forced to compensate a man for losing track of nine guns he surrendered to them.

In January 2017 the man surrendered eight rifles and a shotgun to the Waitematā station after a Family Court judge issued a temporary protection order against him.

The Authority found the police failed to tag and store the guns correctly, and arms officers at the station were not aware they had been handed in.

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