A former Sergeant who was involved in the initial investigation following the death of Lachie Jones told a coronial inquest the police at the time were under-resourced and inexperienced.
The 3-year-old was found dead in a sewage pond in Gore after going missing in 2019.
Police twice concluded he accidentally drowned.
Lachie’s father, Paul Jones, does not accept the police conclusion his son drowned.
Former Sergeant Hua Tamariki on Friday told a coronial inquest he believed the Eastern Southland policing area was poorly resourced and lacked experience at the time.
” …. we got into a practice – [it] wasn’t the best practice – we had to pull together to do a lot of things where ordinarily a police structure… would make it clear who did what,” he said.