{"id":118293,"date":"2025-11-04T23:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/118293\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:27:15","slug":"more-than-100-police-officers-still-working-despite-investigation-over-false-breath-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/118293\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 100 police officers still working despite investigation over false breath tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regarding the falsified tests, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers said: \u201cWhat these staff have done is, either at the start of the shift or during the shift, at the end of the shift, they\u2019ve clicked the device that they\u2019re all issued with more times than have actually seen them interacting with a motorist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tests were done while the officers were in moving cars, which allowed the algorithm to pick up the numbers \u201coutside the normal parameters\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to single these ones out to say, this is irregular, and this is how we\u2019ve identified that 120 staff,\u201d Roger said.<\/p>\n

Rogers said she did not know who the staff were working with, but said there were some work groups that had more than one staff member represented in the figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cA higher number of people have been identified who are in our dedicated road policing teams. And that\u2019s the disappointing thing. You know, we\u2019ve done 4.2 million legitimate tests. We had the lowest number of alcohol related deaths on our roads last year. So I\u2019m baffled why they felt the need to clip the ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what reason there would be for falsifying tests, other than meeting targets<\/a>, Rogers said police were working to identify the rationale and said it may be that staff \u201cexceeded the numbers that they\u2019ve legitimately done for reasons of making it look like they\u2019re doing work that they haven\u2019t done\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rogers did not rule out a criminal investigation into the staff who had falsified a large number of tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t predict what\u2019s going to come from those employment investigations \u2026 But if we were to identify criminal offending, then that\u2019s what we would address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogers confirmed none of the staff had been stood down.<\/p>\n

Asked how police could trust them, she said: \u201cYeah, that\u2019s a question we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to allow processes to take their place, and I think that we\u2019ve got robust frameworks in position to do that, and we\u2019re focusing on those people that are working hard every day to keep the roads safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, a police spokesperson confirmed to RNZ that the falsified tests occurred throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Asked what explanation had been given for why staff falsified the tests, the spokesperson said police \u201cfar exceeded\u201d the national target of 3.3 million tests included in the Road Policing Investment Programme (RPIP) by about 900,000.<\/p>\n

\"AllAll of the staff who are under investigation are still working and have not been stood down. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

NZTA found out about the issue in September<\/p>\n

A New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) spokesperson told RNZ on Monday the agency was informed of the issue regarding alcohol breath screening tests in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrink-driving enforcement is a key part of ensuring safety on New Zealand\u2019s roads, and NZTA is very concerned that this has occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are monitoring the issue closely and we have asked police to provide NZTA with further information as they manage the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether NZTA believed the targets should still be in place, the spokesperson said there was \u201cclear evidence\u201d that increased levels of enforcement lead to \u201cbetter road safety outcomes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly indications are that the agreed activity and target levels set for police are working well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn independent evaluation of the Road Policing Investment Programme [RPIP] is underway, and any decisions on activity, targets and future programmes will be informed by such evaluations, international best practice and agreed with partner agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ministry of Transport<\/a> spokesperson said the ministry had been briefed and was \u201cconcerned about what has been occurring\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working closely with NZTA and NZ Police to monitor the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police Minister Mark Mitchell said on Monday the targets were \u201cworking well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA review of the targets would be a decision for NZTA, [the Ministry of Transport] and police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogers earlier said police would not be reviewing the targets or how they were applied. She said police were planning its approach to the RPIP.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice will support the retention of this measure and how it is currently applied\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rogers said \u201cglobal evidence\u201d showed that high levels of breath testing saved lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most effective way to deter this behaviour is with high visibility of police on the roads and high levels of breath testing. In 2024, police recorded the lowest level of alcohol-related deaths in recent history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe breath testing devices were equipped with \u201cstate-of-the-art technology\u201d. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Rogers said the false data was not detected earlier because the required technology was not available.<\/p>\n

In August 2025, Police ICT enabled the National Road Policing Centre (NRPC) to build the algorithm which enabled them to examine the data.<\/p>\n

She said the breath testing devices were equipped with \u201cstate-of-the-art technology\u201d including GPS, officer identity as well as evidential breath testing capability.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, as the devices cannot differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate tests, police carried out checks to ensure that our staff were acting with integrity to the system. As soon as we realised a small number of officers were not acting in line with our values, we have reported this to Waka Kotahi<\/a> and begun an employment investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogers said police had taken the falsified data issue \u201cextremely seriously\u201d and commenced an employment investigation into the officers involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice will do everything it can to ensure that public trust and confidence in its alcohol testing regime is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the behaviour was \u201cisolated to a small number of staff\u201d and did not reflect the majority of officers who \u201ccome to work every day to keep New Zealanders safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

As the employment process was underway, she was unable to comment on whether any staff had been stood down as a result.<\/p>\n

– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Regarding the falsified tests, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers said: \u201cWhat these staff have done is, either…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3548,82055,24140,127,16843,42,12898,130,43,23421,1523,675,15768,6100,764,131,40,38,41,39,19135],"class_list":["post-118293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-3548","tag-breath","tag-checkpoint","tag-despite","tag-false","tag-headlines","tag-investigation","tag-more","tag-news","tag-officers","tag-over","tag-police","tag-sherwood","tag-still","tag-tests","tag-than","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}