A West Coast police sergeant showed a "flagrant abuse of his power" when he illegally detained a man and woman so they could later be interviewed, says the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA).
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The IPCA has ruled that police seriously breached the rights of three people who were detained at the Greymouth Police Station after being arrested in May 2015, holding two of them for up to 19 hours and handcuffing a third man while he was in his cell.
The three were arrested in Greymouth in the early hours of the morning - one for assault and two for cannabis possession.
The authority said it was illegal for the sergeant to ask for two of them to be detained for up to 19 hours so he could interview them personally.
It also said there was no justification for keeping a third person in handcuffs.
After the two people - a man and a woman - who had been arrested for cannabis possession were taken back to the station, they were "arbitrarily detained", in breach of their rights, said the IPCA.
"Police did not take them to appear at court on the morning of their arrests; instead a sergeant directed that they be kept in custody while he was off duty so that he could interview them when he returned to the police station at 10pm that evening."
The woman was detained by police for more than 19 hours and the man for more than 15 hours. The IPCA said police did not have the power to detain them for questioning and should have released them, either without charge or on bail, after their opportunity to appear at court had passed.
"As an experienced officer, the sergeant must have known full well that it was illegal to detain the man and woman so they could later be interviewed. The sergeant's actions were a flagrant abuse of his power", said Authority chair, Judge Sir David Carruthers.
The sergeant was currently subject to an employment investigation by the police.
Police said they regretted the actions of a number of staff, and changes had been made to ensure the same thing did not happen again.
