The parents of a young girl who said a stranger tried to pick her up as she walked home from school have laid a complaint over the way police handled the case.
Police have closed the investigation, saying their inquiries yielded no leads.
But the parents are concerned about the investigation and have laid a complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
“I also would like to know what they’ve actually done in relation to this investigation,” the girl’s father told Bay Harbour News.
A man allegedly approached the 8-year-old outside Lyttelton Primary School on December 12, saying her parents had told him to pick her up.
She ran home when the stranger did not know a password she and her parents had created should anyone she didn’t know approach her.
The father told Bay Harbour News he believed police did not check CCTV cameras which could have provided clues to the vehicle the stranger could have been associated with.
His daughter said a white van was parked near where she was approached.
He said cameras on Norwich Quay and the Lyttelton Tunnel could have helped the investigation.
The father says police initially said they would check footage from the cameras. But when he made inquiries about the progress of the investigation last week, he was told the case was “closed”.
The officer he was dealing with wouldn’t say if the cameras had been checked, he said.
“I said to her: ‘So what have you guys actually done?’”
He said the officer would not reveal what other inquiries had been made.
“I don’t think they did anything. I don’t even know if they asked for the camera footage.”
Police also refused to answer specific questions from Bay Harbour News, including whether the Norwich Quay and tunnel cameras, or any others around Lyttelton, were checked.
The father also said he told police about a grey vehicle which could have been involved when another girl was approached at Opawa School, also in December.
The person associated with that vehicle had similar features to the man his daughter said approached her.
The father’s inquiries also revealed Lyttelton Tunnel CCTV footage is deleted after about seven days.
A NZTA Waka Kotahi spokesperson said the footage is deleted because of storage costs.
CCTV footage on Norwich Quay is stored in a city council database and is deleted after about five weeks.
Police would not comment on whether CCTV at the tunnel or in other parts of Lyttelton were checked for vehicles of interest during the investigation or if there were checks within seven days of the alleged incident.
