Debbie Ngarewa-Packer Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Te Pati Māori's co-leader says she has no faith in the police investigation into the fatal shooting of Kaoss Price in 2022.
A Critical Incident Investigation by police found officers were justified in shooting the unarmed 22-year-old who had rammed a police car and attempted to steal cars from passers-by.
A separate Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation and a Coronial Inquiry are also underway.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told Morning Report Price was tried by social media before any investigation took place.
The investigation took nearly 18 months to come out and it had taken that long for the family to get any sort of clarity about what had happened, she said.
Ngarewa-Packer said training was needed to ensure that using a gun was not the first police response to incidents and police should not have the right to conduct their own investigation if they were responsible for the person's death.
Police said the Critical Police Investigation was carried out by senior and experienced staff from outside of the central district overseen by a detective superintendent appointed by the assistant commissioner of investigations.
Police said they were making no further comment at this stage because the Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation and Coronial Inquiry were ongoing.
A spokesperson for the Price whānau at the time, Julia Whaipooti, criticised the lack of respect she felt police had shown towards them.
"It is something that all of us should be concerned about, the police have again investigated themselves and found themselves not criminally liable for the killing at the hands of police of another young man."
She said she did not have faith in police investigating their own actions and people needed to imagine if their unarmed nephew or son was shot dead by police.
"How can that be justified? What made that justified? If police are going to investigate themselves and say it was fine they should be proactively handing over the evidence so they can be examined by someone actually independent."
She said she believed killing an unarmed person could not be justified.
Whaipooti did not believe reports from the IPCA and coroner would lead to any action.
"They may find that there was no justified killing another unarmed man and what will happen? Nothing, it will be noted by the police like many IPCA reports that have come out, they have no teeth."
It was time for the public to hold the police to account for the power that they wielded, she said.
Ngarewa-Packer said said the number of Māori men shot by police was disproportionate.
The family of Kaoss Price was still devastated by the shooting and the way it was managed by police and their lawyers were still assessing the police report, she said.
