Otago's top policeman, Southern district commander Superintendent Andrew Coster, says he has confidence in policing in Alexandra.
But he concedes the many failings highlighted by the Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation into police handling of the Shane Cribb prosecution were a fair assessment.
The failings had led to changes in the way similar incidents would be handled in the future, Supt Coster said.
''If this kind of situation arose today, it would be quite a different scenario,'' he said.
The authority released its findings yesterday of an investigation into the prosecution of Mr Cribb, who was 17 when his car and a ute, driven by former Senior Constable Neil Ford, crashed near Alexandra.
The authority found a number of failings by police led to Mr Cribb incorrectly being prosecuted for careless use of a vehicle causing injury after Ford blamed the accident on the teen. While police accepted the findings, Supt Coster said Alexandra was policed with good intent and good results were being achieved.
He was pleased to have reached ''an end point'' to the case, which stretched back almost a decade.
Supt Coster believed the work police were doing in the town would help the community move on from the incident.
''There's been a significant turnover of staff in Alexandra from when this occurred to today and the staff have worked hard and work hard to strengthen relationships with the community,'' he said.
The authority found no evidence of a conspiracy among officers involved in the crash.
''The reality is people do make mistakes and the key in terms of having confidence is identifying when those mistakes have been made and moving on from them, aiming not to make those mistakes again,'' Supt Coster said.
When asked if it was appropriate for senior officers involved in the investigation to avoid disciplinary action, he said as it was a historic case the officers were ''under the old regime'' and disciplinary proceedings had to be carried out within 12 months of the incident.
He conceded that answer might ''not be overly comforting''.
When asked what would likely happen to the senior officers if a similar case was to arise today, he said: ''It's a little bit hard to say if there would be an employment consequence following on from it''.
''I'm confident that there have been lessons learnt by all those involved.''
Many of the officers involved in the investigation still work for police, including Inspector Michael Cook - senior sergeant and acting Otago rural area commander at the time - who is still based in Alexandra.
The report singled out Insp Cook for failing to ensure a senior officer investigated the crash, failing to address concerns raised by then Constable Dairne Cassidy about her being assigned the investigation and making the comment that crash experts were ''failed cops being paid for by the defence''.
Insp Cook was seconded in 2012 to a role with the Southern district's policing excellency project.
Supt Coster said he was unable to ''stray into talking about people's personal employment agreements'', but he was ''very comfortable'' with the work Insp Cook was now involved with.
Lessons had been learnt and policies improved as a result of the case.
The ''key'' change was a conflict-of-interest policy and police now decided in the early stages of an investigation who the best person to carry it out might be.
The policies in place at the time were ''sound''. However, the decision-making around their application was flawed, he said.
When asked if a lack of training had led to poor decision-making considering policies were good, he said: ''It wasn't an issue of training ... so much as it was following it.''
The changes in policy and the implementation of a police code of conduct had ''shifted the landscape'' and police were now ''operating in quite a different environment''.
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