A delay in the release of a report expected to criticise several Dunedin police officers is the result of confusion around the Independent Police Complaints Authority's processes rather than a deliberate attempt to stall the release, Dunedin police say.
An authority spokesman said the authority was also viewing the delay as the result of confusion over who should have shown the final report to officers named in it.
The report contains the findings of the authority's investigation into four complaints about the way Dunedin police handled search warrants requested by a private investigator contracted by ACC to investigate the complainants who were suspected of defrauding ACC.
The private investigator was formerly a Dunedin police officer and is the father-in-law of one of the officers named in the report.
Complainants expect the report to be critical of the officers' conduct.
The completed report was to be released to complainants last Thursday, but was stalled when officers named in it said they had not been given an opportunity to comment, as required by law.
The authority had given the report to the office of police commissioner Howard Broad and understood police would make sure those named in it had read it.
The police had expected the authority would do that, the authority's spokesman Bernard Steeds said.
"We thought this process was nailed down, but it appears it is not."
A response to an Official Information Act request, received by one of the complainants, Bruce Van Essen, on Monday and given to the Otago Daily Times, showed Southern police district commander Superintendent George Fraser, the district operations manager Inspector Lane Todd and community relations officer Vivien Pullar were given the report on July 23.
It was not passed on to the nine other officers required to be issued with a copy until after August 7.
Supt Fraser said last night, "Due to legislative boundaries, police did not believe they had any authority to release the report wider without the specific direction of the authority."
Mr Van Essen said he found it hard to believe that the officers involved had not read the final report and that the delay was due to crossed wires.
"They should know better than that."
Mr Steeds said he could not give a date for the expected release of the report.
