Auckland police probe a pointless inquiry

National's Tony Ryall is questioning why a "pointless witch-hunt" is underway to find the insider who allegedly leaked information on the mismanagement of RSA murderer William Bell's parole.

"This inquiry is ridiculous when Auckland police are already stretched to the limit trying to handle a staggering workload. All it does is undermine their argument for more resources.

"Policing is in crisis in the region; we only need to look at the latest example, the amount of "unallocated" fraud files piling up in Greater Auckland police stations."

Parliamentary questions by Mr Ryall, National's Police spokesman, have revealed that 864 fraud files are lying uninvestigated or unallocated in the Auckland police district, and 742 in the Counties-Manukau police district.

"The Police Minister's excuse that these files are "warranting further inquiry" or being "held for further consideration" is simply another way of saying the files have been allocated but no one has any time to work on them," says Mr Ryall.

"This is hardly surprising when officers are diverted to pointless cases like this witch-hunt for a whistleblower. It is no wonder the Police Association is saying "frontline cops will just shake their heads when they hear of this."

"All this inquiry does is erode the argument that police staffing is under pressure. The real picture is a serious staff shortage, one that National knows won't be solved by putting a few British bobbies on the Auckland beat," says Mr Ryall.

© Scoop Media