Under the Radar: NZ Police Interview tactics, Prison corruption & what 501 suicide might mean
We here at TDB like to be first at pointing shit out, but in this never ending 24-7 news clusterfuck of a media environment we all live in, even we can slip up and miss something that should get more focus, so from time to time we’ll run Under the Radar News, things of note that escaped attention.
This week, NZ Police Interview tactics, Prison corruption & what 501 suicide might mean.
NZ Police Interview tactics:
How many times do we get told by the cops after a deplorable interview process that borders on bullying a confession out of desperate and simple people that they promise to change procedure? We had it after Police planted evidence in the Arthur Allan Thomas case, we had it after the Christchurch Creche satanic case, we had it after Teina Pora, we had it with taking photos and taking statements from Māori teenagers on the street.
Now we have it with a new entrapment interview process that has seen very little attention in the NZ Media…
Top cop intimately involved in interviews that led to false murder confession
The architect of a controversial interviewing method had intimate oversight of its use in a case where a false confession was extracted from a murder suspect.
A High Court judge said detectives trained in the Complex Investigation Phased Engagement Model (CIPEM) misled the man, and “manipulated” him to make a confession that was “very flawed” and “not credible”.
Detective Superintendent Tom Fitzgerald, who is the officer in charge of the police’s national crime group, and who created CIPEM, previously said any issues were the result of mistakes by the detectives who questioned the suspect, not a flawed model.
He wouldn’t discuss the extent to which he was involved in the interviews, which were conducted as part of Operation Archer – the investigation into the 2016 murder of Upper Hutt woman Lois Tolley.
Stuff can now reveal that Fitzgerald helped plan the suspect’s interviews and watched them unfold from an adjacent room – offering advice and direction to the two detectives as required.
…look, if you want to have cosy fireside chats with criminals and that helps get information and prosecutions, hey, that’s smart Policing, but what we have here is a process that has clear breaches of good faith law, is in fact illegal and allows for huge periods of time where the fucking camera or recording devices are switched off.
How the Christ can we have any certitude that there isn’t something untoward occurring when the cameras and audio get switched off? The fact that Fitzgerald originally claimed his interview process wasn’t correctly followed by the Detectives and that was the reason the case fell over simply isn’t fucking true! Fitzgerald was there coaching the fucking Detectives the whole fucking time!
Look, you can’t have a Police interview process that generates false or illegal confessions! If all we are trying to do is set people up and convict them of crimes we force them to confess to, that’s not a fucking legal process, that’s a gulag! How have the NZ Police managed to get away with this with so little media attention and how often is this interview process now being used? Are we going to see a sudden spike of mistrials because the Police have adopted a rigged interview process?
What the fuck is going here?
Prison corruption:
With the huge spike in 501s now in NZ, the exploitation of an underfunded and corrupt prison service has been easily compromised by a professional criminal class, so no one should be surprised at the scale of the corruption…
Nine more Corrections staff stood down amid Rimutaka Prison corruption investigation
Nine staff have been suspended at Rimutaka Prison amid an investigation into corruption at the jail, it can be revealed.
Rimutaka Prison is currently embroiled in a corruption investigation linked to money laundering and drug smuggling called Operation Portia.
The most recent suspensions were not believed to be directly linked to Operation Portia but Newshub understands police discovered other code of conduct breaches while carrying out that investigation.
Earlier Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beales earlier told Newshub that five staff members at Rimutaka Prison have been placed on special leave. This has since been updated to nine.
Beale told Newshub in a statement: “Nine members of staff at Rimutaka Prison have been placed on special leave today (Thursday 26 May) and employment investigations are underway after allegations of staff misconduct were identified.”
…the truly concerning part of this, is that these 9 staff members weren’t even the focus of Operation Portia, they’ve been caught up in it and are collateral damage of the investigation which suggests that the internal culture of corrections must be riddled with corruption if 9 staff are stood down.
There is far more to come on this but it highlights one of the weaknesses being exploited by the sophisticated 501s, our prison system was corrupt and violent BEFORE the 501s arrived, that they are so easily manipulating the current system to their total benefit makes punishment meaningless if these professional criminals all are still operating crime from inside their prison cells.
What 501 suicide might mean:
The suicide of a NZ women in a 501 detention centre won’t help de-escalate the controversial Australian policy.
If anything, it might make it worse.
While Labor didn’t support the previous Government’s desire to expand the 501 scheme that could have seen 5 times as many 501s sent back to NZ, Labor did enthusiastically support charging 501s a per day cost of their stay in Pacific torture prisons and Australian based detention camps.
If implemented, NZ can expect to see a spike in 501s being renditioned here as they give up any legal fight against their forced expulsion because of a per day fee they will be charged for staying.
We really don’t appreciate how deeply xenophobic a former penal colony can become over a few hundred years.
With a gang war erupting in NZ because of 501s attempting to take over the meth trade, a spike in their numbers as Australia empties their 501 detention camps will push NZ-Australian relations to breaking point right when solidarity against China is being demanded.
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Before I read this even I am concerned – at the fact that there are no comments though this was written on the 28th. I hope this gets a lot of attention. If you had a weeping wound on your leg and it looked as though it might turn to gangrene wouldn’t you be worried and rush to do something to heal it??
My heart breaks for those who have been trying to improve conditions in the prisons, isolate the really violent, care for the prison warders, and treat prison as a sort of polytechnic for positive outcomes after practical work with those who can cope with training and mental help for those who can’t and look after the prisoners welfare, making sure they don’t get further brutalised, and also protecting the trainers and teachers and staff from being harmed.
The young can get taught useful stuff and earn a NCEA credit but also have discussions on society as to why it is (not just colonialism) but patterns of historic behaviour, human tendencies, so they can understand themselves. The older recidivists would not necessarily be given access to tools, but be encouraged to read, or learn to read, and to take up painting, working with different media. They would probably hate this but there would be some reward, special meal etc. no alcohol, for those who forced themselves to participate and not be disruptive of everybody,;an exercise in self discipline and new thinking! The question of ‘Are you happy’ would be asked at the beginning to get them thinking, and then further ‘Do you remember the times when you were happy’? It could start some healing though uncomfortable thinking.
But more than that help at the grassroots where the bad conditions are and the prison occupants learn their attitudes and moves. Help the parents trying to make their way in the rotten world that the government itself had instituted decades ago. Help the prisoners when they leave to get established again, perhaps a change of location.
Shame on all those with power to do something and who chose not to or funded some expensive idea that placated watchers but didn’t help the people in the way they needed. Work with the actual people on small projects that will help them and their families to do what is needed to have a life with security and regular times of enjoyment. We all need that.
Excellent, you know in Germany it is a 3 year degree to become a prison guard.
Most people are only interested in ‘crims’ being punished, punished, punished.
Of course punishment – what about atonement I say. Sorry. Prove you are sorry and make up for it in an acceptable way. We are getting nowhere in NZ with civilisation, going backwards to the 19th century and no-one is concerned enough to be interested.
What the hell have we had education for all these years? We might as well have just learned to read and write and learned a trade and left school to work at age 14. We are world famous in our own heads – having learned just enough to hoist ourselves on our own petards.