The Police Commissioner says he “can’t understand” how some officers had the time to engage in misconduct after an audit sparked by former deputy commissioner’s offences found a small number of staff with inappropriate material on their work devices.
The audit was ordered on May 12, the same day former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming resigned, following revelations he had accessed child sexual exploitation and bestiality material on his work devices over a four-year period.
McSkimming pleaded guilty to three representative charges in the Wellington District Court on Thursday, admitting to possessing objectionable publications between July 2020 and December 2024.
Speaking to 1News today, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the rapid review of police technology controls had exposed “inconsistent”, “inadequate” and “insufficient” systems. He has since ordered ongoing audits of staff use of police equipment.
“That has already identified a small number of people who may be accessing other inappropriate material, so I’m going to act on those swiftly,” Chambers said.
“If they fall below expectations and potentially the law, then we will act on those.”
Chambers said he was personally upset by the findings and questioned how officers had time to engage in misconduct.
“We deal with demand day and night, that’s often hard to keep up with. To think that people would have time to be doing things on devices that fall below standards, potentially the law – I just can’t understand that, and we’ll deal with that.”
Disgraced former deputy police commissioner pleaded guilty to three representative charges of possessing objectionable publications. (Source: 1News)
Police Minister Mark Mitchell again today declined to comment on McSkimming’s case while it remained before the court, but urged the public not to let the scandal undermine confidence in the wider force.
“We’ve got 15,000 outstanding, amazing, non-sworn and sworn staff that are out there every day doing tens of thousands of positive acts of kindness, courage and service for New Zealand.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins – who appointed McSkimming to the statutory Deputy Police Commissioner role in April 2023 during his time as prime minister – said the case was “utterly unacceptable”.
“This had been going on for four or five years, and it seemed to go below the radar within the police. That shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.”
Hipkins said the vetting process used during McSkimming’s appointment was “clearly inadequate”, and called for a “real tightening up” of police IT systems.
“I can say absolutely that, with the advice we were given in Jevon McSkimming’s appointment, none of this was identified during that process.”
