Police Minister Mark Mitchell sitting beside commissioner Richard Chambers. (File photo) Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Police Minister Mark Mitchell has showered the police commissioner Richard Chambers with praise, saying a few "minor infractions" should not detract from his "phenomenal" performance in the job.
On Tuesday morning, RNZ revealed Chambers took a "very brief dip" at Oriental Bay on 1 August despite a tsunami advisory being in place. He was with FBI Director Kash Patel at the time after an early morning run.
Chambers last week also admitted he had recently been ticketed for going 112km/h in a 100km/h zone.
Speaking at Parliament on Tuesday, Mitchell acknowledged the swimming incident was "not good enough" but stressed Chambers thought the warning had been lifted.
"Yes, he shouldn't have been in the water, and that's why he called me and apologised and said, you know, that was an oversight on his part."
Mitchell said Chambers was the "best guy, without a doubt, to be leading" the police service, and he had great admiration and respect for him.
"These were minor infractions, and he rang me and informed me of both of them straight away and made an apology," Mitchell said.
"He is a man packed full of integrity. He is deeply engaged with his front line and understands what they need and how to support them. And he's also got a very good strategic mind on him."
Chambers earlier told RNZ he went for the mid-winter swim just after 7am believing the tsunami advisory had been lifted. He said he apologised to Mitchell after later discovering the advisory had not been lifted until about 8.30am.
"It is not usual for me to ignore such warnings," Chambers said.
The advisory was issued the day before by the National Emergency Management Agency after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia's remote east coast.
Mitchell said the advisory was necessary and extremely serious.
"Every morning, at about six o'clock, there are a whole lot of people that come down to the beaches to enjoy nature, to go for a walk, take their dogs for a walk.
"And at that stage, we still weren't 100% sure that we weren't going to have... massive tidal movements on the beaches, and had we had one of those, then people could die."
Mitchell's own correction
The commissioner's minor transgressions come at a time of increased scrutiny on police leadership, after a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority report into the previous executive team.
The report identified "serious misconduct" at the highest levels of police over their handling of accusations of sexual offending by former deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
In an interview with TVNZ's Q+A, broadcast on Sunday, Mitchell repeatedly described that executive as "corrupt" but then later walked that back.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mitchell said he should not have used that word because it was not consistent with language used in the IPCA report.
"There was probably a bit of passion coming through in that interview," he said.
Mitchell said he had not been advised there was any legal risk from his comments.
On the day of the report's release, Attorney General Judith Collins was also asked whether the police conduct amounted to corruption. She replied: "If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's not looking good, is it?"
The IPCA report did not identify any "collusion" by the executive, but rather a "consistent pattern of behaviour driven by a common mindset and perspective".
It also said it found "no evidence" that officers were "consciously doing the wrong thing or setting out to undermine the integrity of the organisation".
"The problem essentially arose from the fact that a variety of persons at very senior levels in the organisation failed to recognise, or accept, that there was anything of potential concern and, even during our investigation, seemed unaware of the inappropriateness of their actions."
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