‘Unwitting neglect of duty’
An ‘‘unwitting neglect of duty’’ led to the unlawful police raid of journalist Nicky Hager’s home, the Independent Police Conduct Authority says.
Police searched Hager’s Wellington home in October 2014, seeking evidence on the hacker ‘‘Rawshark’’, who provided information for his book Dirty
Politics. The search has since been deemed ‘‘fundamentally unlawful’’ by the High Court. Police did not mention Hager was a journalist when drafting the search warrant and were found to have breached ‘‘journalistic privilege’’.
The authority said yesterday that police policy failed to guide officers through a search warrant of potentially privileged material. The raid was not the result of misconduct by any one officer.
‘‘Police did not conduct the search in an appropriate manner because they did not adequately plan how to give Mr Hager the opportunity to claim privilege over the material . . . if he was not at home. Nor did police adequately plan how to secure the relevant documents,’’ authority chairman Judge Colin Doherty said.
The authority found the lead detective was among officers who had no understanding of ‘‘journalistic privilege’’ and acted on legal advice that dismissed the concern. Under the Evidence Act, a journalist cannot be compelled in legal proceedings to answer questions or produce material that would disclose the identity of an informant. The authority was satisfied police had sufficiently revised the policy.
Police assistant commissioner Bill Searle said the authority’s findings showed there was no intent to deceive the judge when seeking the search warrant. ‘‘There is no evidence that the officers were acting in bad faith or deliberately set out to undermine the claim of privilege during the execution of the search warrant.
‘‘The authority does, however, find deficiencies in the policy in place at the time of the warrant, plus other actions taken.’’
There have since been revisions to the police manual, he said.
Hager said the IPCA’s decision provided ‘‘further vindication’’ of this decision to sue police for acting unlawfully.
He said despite the ‘‘damning findings’’, it was disappointing the IPCA recommended no consequences and did not inspect police’s actions after he had complained.
In 2015, then-Green party coleader Metiria Turei complained to the authority, asking it to investigate.
In June 2018, police apologised to Hager and paid substantial damages for the unlawful search.