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RICKY WILSON / THINGS
Police officers were charged with pulling a teenage girl’s hair and sticking her head in gravel while arresting her. But the IPCA doubts that is what happened. (File photo)
The police watchdog has concluded that it was “unlikely” that officers pulled a teenage girl by the hair or caused her head to fall on gravel during her arrest.
The 16-year-old’s mother complained to the Independent Police Conduct Authority after her daughter was forcibly removed from a stolen car in which she was riding and arrested.
The girl alleged that an officer dragged her out of the car, deliberately threw her to the ground and used inappropriate language towards her after a police chase in North Auckland on July 3, 2019.
However, the authority determined that the arrest was “justified” and that the use of force by the police was “necessary, reasonable and proportionate,” given the girl’s level of resistance.
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The authority’s president, Judge Colin Doherty, said the girl’s statements about what had happened “lacked coherence” and the evidence contradicted them.
Instead, it concluded that the girl, who was drunk, cut her head on gravel on the road during a fight with officers.
John Bisset / Stuff
According to an IPCA report, the youths were driving dangerously during the chase. (File photo)
The authority found that the girl resisted arrest and did not obey the officers’ instructions to get out of the car.
They then forcibly removed her and kept her on the ground to handcuff her.
Doherty also found that it was unlikely that an officer would pull the girl’s hair or that officers would use inappropriate language towards her.
He was satisfied that the police acted professionally during the arrest.
The incident occurred after four young men, two boys and two girls, stole a car in Manurewa, south of Auckland.
The group evaded police for about two hours before the red Mazda was stopped by spikes on Burnside Rd in Makarau, according to the authority’s decision.
The other three youths were removed from the vehicle without incident, according to the report.
The girl later admitted to throwing one of the six cans of RTD Smirnoff that she drank during the chase out of the window.
She acknowledged that she knew the car was stolen.
The police arrested her, as well as the other occupants, for being illegally in a stolen vehicle.
They tried to provide first aid for a bleeding cut on his forehead, before taking the young men south to Auckland.
The girl was questioned at the Manukau Police Station, 80 kilometers from Makarau, but refused to tell the officers her name.
Police confirmed his identity and age after finding a bank card with his name in his wallet.
Once they realized that the girl was 16 years old, the police called her parents.
The girl was taken to the hospital and later referred to Youth Aid.
The girl told the authority that she was slow to get out of the car because she wanted to make sure she had all her belongings.
He claimed that police officers had given him disparaging names.
However, none of the officers who attended, who were from various Auckland police stations, recalled hearing that.
But they did remember the girl insulting a police officer, according to the report.
The Waitematā Police District Commander, Superintendent Naila Hassan, said the officers involved were “just doing their job.”
“I want to acknowledge your professionalism during this arrest,” he said.
