One dead following Dargaville crash

RNZ News14 hours ago

Photo:
RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Police say one person has died, after a serious crash Saturday evening in Dargaville.
About 5.20pm, police said they were notified of a single-vehicle crash on Jervois Street.
Despite best efforts from emergency services, one person died at the scene.
A scene examination is finished and the road has re-opened.
While enquiries into the crash are ongoing, initial indications suggested this was a suspected medical event and the death would be referred to the coroner.
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RNZ News

3 hours ago

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Political blame game over slipping standards among police recruits

A significant number of applicants are allowed into the college, despite failing preliminary tests. Photo: Supplied / Police Current and former police ministers are pointing fingers at each other over slipping standards at the Police College. Findings from an audit into recruitment standards at the Royal New Zealand Police College has found a significant number of applicants were allowed into the college, despite failing preliminary tests. The Police College sometimes gives discretion to recruits who fall short of certain standards, although they must still pass the tests before graduating - but the audit found this had become increasingly common. The findings prompted Police Commissioner Richard Chambers to instruct the college not to accept anyone who hasn't met all mandatory recruitment standards. Minister of Police Mark Mitchell blamed the previous government. "There is no doubt in my mind that the priorities set by the previous government around recruiting contributed to this," he said. "When in opposition, I expressed my concern around the change in standards. When coming into government, I supported an immediate change back to a 20-week recruit course from 16 weeks." Labour's police spokesperson and Mitchell's predecessor, Ginny Andersen, noted the audit covered the period from January 2024 to April 2025, under the current government. "This review period falls completely under his watch as Minister of Police," she said. "Mark Mitchell himself talks about people needing to take personal responsibility, but he never fronts up for his own failures." Instead, she blamed the government's promise to recruit 500 new police officers by early next year. "This raises those real concerns that there has been potentially political pressure applied to the college in order to deliver on a political promise - a coalition promise - of 500 more police that quite clearly won't be met." Mitchell noted that was not the intention. "Both Casey Costello and I made our expectations clear that meeting the coalition agreement of 500 more police officers would not come at the expense of standards," he said. Police Association president Chris Cahill said he didn't think it was a government issue, but an internal police issue. "There's continuous pressure to recruit and it's police that have to hold those standards," he said. "They can't blame the politicians, I'm afraid. "Clearly, internal people within police knew discretion was being applied and standards were being breached." Cahill said members of his association had noticed the standards for new officers appeared to drop. "It's an accusation we get often from our members that they're seeing people they don't believe would have met all the standards," he said. "We've had multiple assurances from police that isn't the case and then we see this report that clearly says standards have been breached at times." During last year's pay negotiations, Cahill said part of NZ Police's argument against a higher wage increase was that there were plenty of recruits to choose from. "We've argued in the pay round that [meeting recruitment targets] was a struggle and they denied it was, give us big figures for applications that we found out were only expressions of interest. "I'm wondering if these people were pushed through to aid that argument and, if that's the case, it's pretty dishonest. It raises some real questions of integrity to me." He said allowing underqualified recruits into the college put them and their fellow officers at risk. "Once they graduate, they're out on the street, pretty much doing the exact same job as a 20-year veteran. "Now, they might have an experienced supervisor or an experienced partner... but what if you've got two of these people that were marginal graduates together? "It's putting them at risk. It's very unfair on them and it also presents the risk that police reputation is damaged by poor performance." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

RNZ News

5 hours ago

RNZ News

Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust founder Craig Shepherd keeps security licence despite assault convictions

By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice reporter of Craig Shepherd Photo: Bill Hickman / RNZ A bird rehabilitation centre founder and security company owner will be allowed to keep his security licence, despite being convicted of assault charges against women. In 2023, Craig Shepherd pleaded guilty to four charges of assault in relation to three women, two of them employees of the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust, as well as a third woman, who had dropped off an injured bird. In 2019, he touched one employee on the lower back and patted her on the bottom, after saying: "I've been watching you, you have been a naughty girl." Shepherd placed his hands around the waist of a second employee that same year and kissed the back of her neck, and on another occasion, patted her on the backside with a piece of cardboard and followed her, repeatedly hitting her with it. Then, in 2021, a member of the public came to the trust's premises at Shepherd's house, with an injured bird and a donation. Shepherd reached out as if he wanted a hug, before rubbing the $20 note she'd given him across her chest and then kissed her firmly on the lips. The woman gathered her belongings and ran towards the door. Shepherd was originally charged with indecent assault and pleaded not guilty, but he pleaded guilty in the Wellington District Court to the charges, after they were downgraded to male assaults female. Shepherd was denied permanent name suppression and a discharge without conviction, and ordered to pay each of his three victims $1500. He unsuccessfully appealed that ruling to both the High Court and the Court of Appeal. The bird trust that Shepherd runs in Wellington is supported financially by his business Harbour City Security, which offers services such as alarm and camera installation, and monitoring for residential homes and commercial businesses. Security businesses and the people who run them are required to hold a Certificate of Authority, which licenses them to undertake different forms of security work. After Shepherd's conviction, the police and the New Zealand Security Association (NZSA) made complaints about him, and his suitability to hold one of these certificates. Despite the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority finding there were grounds for disqualification, Shepherd will be allowed to keep his certificate, as long as he receives no further complaints. One of his former employees and victims believes it is "appalling" that Shepherd is still allowed to run his business. "I don't think he should be allowed to run any business, let alone a security business," she told NZME . "It's really concerning that he's allowed to keep practising." At a hearing this year, Shepherd told the authority he no longer hugged visitors without obtaining permission first, despite - in the past - treating everyone as guests, which he conceded led to the complaints against him. Shepherd also said he was physically standoffish with people he didn't know and now "views most women now as a potential complainant". As part of his submissions, Craig said he'd been in business for 50 years and these were his first complaints. He provided 23 references, 16 of which were from women, in support of his character. Shepherd's primary submission was that he had learned from his mistakes and worked hard to make sure nothing similar occurred again. He told NZME that he had a "wary eye on anybody coming in here now", when asked about his submissions that he viewed women as potential complainants, but declined to comment further on this point. Shepherd said he was pleased to be given an opportunity to carry on the career he'd been in for 50 years. At the same hearing, police said Shepherd was no longer suitable to be a security provider, noting that his offending had a sexual overtone and occurred in an environment where he held the balance of power. New Zealand Security Association chief executive Gary Morrison said in submissions to the authority that the public should be able to trust security providers and that several other security professionals were concerned that Shepherd continued to operate his business, despite his convictions. He told NZME he was disappointed with the outcome, but understood how the authority had reached its decision. "It's important that the public can have trust and faith in security providers," he said. "We had a number of security providers who were aware of the issues and raised their concerns, and were concerned it was impacting public confidence." Authority member Kate Lash said that, while Shepherd continued to deny there was any sexual element to his offending, he pleaded guilty to a summary of facts to the contrary. "Convictions relating to actions by an older male against a younger female, the former of whom is in a position of disproportionate power, are extremely serious," Lash said. "That is particularly so, when the male holds other positions of authority, such as being a security provider and sole director of a reputable security company." Lash said Shepherd clearly regretted his actions and had tried to make amends for them, had changed his outlook on life and appeared to be at low risk of re-offending. Lash said she did not find it in the public interest to cancel Shepherd's security licence and approved his application to waive his disqualification. Despite this, Lash found that the defendant still lacked insight into his offending. "His assertion that the victims did not demonstrate discomfort with his behaviour suggests a limited understanding of the complex considerations a woman may face, when deciding how to respond in such circumstances," she said. "Furthermore, his belief that it is easy for a woman to lodge a complaint in such situations reflects a misunderstanding of the social and personal barriers that often make reporting difficult." Shepherd was reprimanded, and given a "final warning" in that he would likely have his certificate cancelled or suspended, if he received any more complaints of a similar nature. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.

RNZ News

14 hours ago

RNZ News