The Police Commissioner admits there is still work to do to improve bullying and harassment within the force.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says any incident of bullying is completely unacceptable. Photo: RNZ/ Samuel Rillstone
A new survey shows a third of police staff believe the organisation tolerates such behaviour and 40 percent had been personally affected in the last year.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told Morning Report there was still work to do.
"Any incident of bullying is completely unacceptable, and we know where we need to do work."
However, he said it took time to shift behaviours and there had already been a lot of improvement.
"This is a very different organisation from the one that I joined 25 years ago. The vast majority of our staff say that Police is a great place to work and there has been quite a significant decline on top of mind mentions of bullying and the verbatim commentary in the survey."
The Workplace Culture Survey 2022 released by Police showed there had been a decline in staff feeling valued and supported.
Four in ten staff reported that they were bullied in the past 12 months, and one in three did not believe that Police had no tolerance for workplace bullying or harassment.
"I guess the contrast here is that the vast majority of our people do say it's a great place to work," Coster said.
"We need to keep zeroing in on bad behaviour that affects people, and make sure that it's dealt with."
He said it was challenging to demonstrate the consequences for bullying "because of the way things need to be dealt with under employment law".
"But I can tell you that we have had many investigations that have looked into behaviours and resolved them appropriately."
In 2021, the Independent Police Conduct Authority found significant elements of bullying and a related negative culture existed within the police workforce.
That review was launched after an investigation by RNZ, in which almost 200 current or former sworn and non-sworn police staff came forward to reveal a toxic workplace culture, in which they said bullying was rife.
In 2020, there were complaints from bullying victims about senior leadership leading the bullying culture. Back then Coster oversaw the 'Be First, Then Do Strategy and Action Plan', which sought to ensure senior leadership were leading by example.
