McCully misses the obvious problem with our police culture

I don't usually read Murray McCully's newsletter, but I'm at home sick, again, and it caught my eye on Scoop.

There's a lot of faff about the Whangamata Marina case which I didn't bother with, and then there's some commentary on the new Police Commissioner, Howard Broad, and the media conference around the ticket quotas/targets issue.

McCully comments as follows:

The accession of Howard Broad to the Police Commissioner's role brought the hope of a new and better culture at Police Headquarters following the regrettable lapses of recent years. Paintergate, speedgate and the recent Police bungling of the investigation into the Labour Party's campaign budget overspend (either a corrupt practice or an illegal practice) have given the strong impression of Police leadership that lacked independence and impartiality.

Not to mention the Shane Ardern prosecution, which Police prosecutors correctly assessed would be thrown out by the Judge, but which Police bosses decided to pursue anyway. There was a need for a new culture at the top of the Police - one which demonstrated independence, impartiality, professionalism. One which turned it's back on the slavish desire to accommodate the political needs of the Government we have seen in recent years.

What's missing from this equation? What serious concerns have been raised about our police force, about their conduct and culture, that McCully misses?

Yes, that's right, any mention of Louise Nicholas (or any of the other, similar, cases), the pornography found on police computers or about what appears to be a misogynist culture of sexual violence is missing.

Clearly traffic tickets and petty political point-scoring (Shane Ardern, Paintergate etc) are far more important to McCully.

Very sad indeed, but somehow not surprising.