Police interrogation tactics demand a response after too many innocent Kiwis locked up!

The damning emails about a controversial interview technique police tried to keep secret

Damning emails, which police tried to keep secret, show the true level of concern senior officers had about a controversial interviewing technique.

The emails indicate the fallout and internal tensions from Stuff’syear-long inquiry into the Complex Investigation Phased Engagement Model (CIPEM) – an interview technique that resulted in a man making a false confession in a high-profile murder case.

In that case, Detective Sergeant Dylan Ross and Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Anderson, under the observation of CIPEM’s creator – and the country’s top investigator at the time – Detective Superintendent Tom Fitzgerald, coaxed a false confession from a man known as X, who police suspected was involved in the 2016 murder of Lois Tolley in Upper Hutt.

In 2021, High Court judge Simon France excoriated the interviews, saying X was “manipulated” into making a confession that was “very flawed” and “not credible”.

The judge pointed to “repeated and serious” breaches of interviewing guidelines, with Ross and Anderson knowingly not following “the lawful process”, misrepresenting facts, and using CIPEM techniques to “unacceptable excess”.

Police subsequently withdrew the charges against X, as well as two other men charged with Tolley’s murder, as their investigation into the cold case collapsed.

In response, Fitzgerald defended CIPEM (now known as PEACE Plus), an interviewing technique that aims to put the suspect at ease in an effort to get information and confessions.

He blamed any errors on Ross and Anderson, despite Fitzgerald himself observing the interviews as they happened, and relaying instructions to Ross and Anderson. This led to police sources saying the CIPEM officers seemed to have been thrown under the bus by Fitzgerald.

But in what appeared to be coordinated internal emails in May last year, which were released to Stuff within 90 minutes by the police media team, Ross and Anderson denied this was how they felt, and claimed full support for CIPEM and Fitzgerald (see timeline below).

Fitzgerald resigned unexpectedly from the police in October last year, but insisted it had nothing to do with scrutiny of CIPEM.

However, following further revelations by Stuff about CIPEM, Anderson and Ross emailed colleagues in December last year saying the use of CIPEM interviews to investigate cold cases was being suspended.

These emails were previously released to Stuff by police under the Official Information Act.

However, police attempted to conceal the contents of other emails sent at this time – which reveal how concerned officers actually were about CIPEM and the lack of support for those using it.

These emails were only released a fortnight ago after police were told to do so by the Ombudsman, following a complaint by Stuff.

In one of the disclosed emails, Dylan Ross, then an acting detective senior sergeant, takes the extraordinary step of warning all other CIPEM/PEACE Plus-trained officers not to use the technique until a national review of all investigative interviewing is completed.

“I know we have discussed this in training and in our hui’s (sic) but I will say it again for your benefit and my own peace of mind – I would certainly caution you to be aware of being involved in any interviews as a “Peace Plus” trained person within district during this interim period.

“You will have noticed the ongoing media attention to the CIPEM/Peace Plus model and unfortunately, from experience, I cannot assure you that there will be support down the track, particularly until the manual, policy and training are finalised/updated.

“It is vital to Det Inspector Steve Anderson (Tumaru/Raro) and I that none of you experience the kind of situation that we have been confronted with over the last year.”

Four days later, police hierarchy backtracked and sent out another email, saying the use of CIPEM in cold cases had not been suspended.

They again publicly blamed Anderson, who is one of the most experienced CIPEM practitioners, for the bungle, saying his email “was incorrect and should not have been sent”.

A week earlier, and just three days after a major Stuff expose of the CIPEM technique, another senior officer, Whanganui area commander Inspector Ross Grantham, wrote to Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch regarding the review of police interviewing, saying he was “extremely disappointed in how our foundation work has been tainted, and would love to see NZ Police again leading the world with our investigative interview material and training.”

When asked about the difference in Ross’ position – between his May 2022 claims he hadn’t been publicly thrown under the bus by police hierarchy and his December 2022 email warning officers not to use CIPEM because of a lack of support – police claim Ross’ “view towards the situation changed”.

Anyone reading the Alan Hall case would be shocked at the blatant attempt to frame him for the crime.

You honestly get the perception after reading the reports that the cops simply rounded up the most vulnerable person near the crime and bullied him into answers that were used to frame him while withholding evidence that proved he didn’t do it.

They knew Alan couldn’t have committed the crime, but the simply framed him anyway because their interrogation techniques are manipulative and have little to do with catching the actual criminal and more to do with simply finding a prosecution.

With the recent litany of miscarriage of justice cases, seeing the inside of a corrupted police interrogation process happening in real time now suggests the Police have learned NOTHING from the mistakes and failures of the past, which is what we have been promised  every time one of these miscarriages of justice get exposed!

This use of a deeply flawed interrogation model that fell over in court which the Police lied about is just extraordinary!

Detective Superintendent Tom Fitzgerald also was responsible for that other great questionable miscarriage of justice case, the murder of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart.

Based on what we currently have in front of us with this case and the recent miscarriages of justice cases of Peter Ellis, David Dougherty, Teina Pora,  David Lyttle, Mauha Fawcett and Alan Hall you get a terrible feeling that Police are not following the evidence in case, but are merely rounding up the most vulnerable suspects and bullying confessions out of them or twisting the evidence to fit the crime.

What is happening here is a can of very sick and toxic worms are being ripped open while the media’s attention is on the petty and vacant.

What is being exposed here is a rotten process that reeks of corruption. I once thought that maybe as much as 5% of the prison population might be innocent, after looking at what has been starkly revealed in this police interrogation process, I think that number might be closer to 30% of the prison population being innocent.

What has been revelled here calls into question fundamental values of justice and Policing in a democracy. The total lack of wider attention this case and the questions it raises must be addressed.

Allan Hall may be but the beginning of something far, far, far, larger.

 

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