Police officers who allowed a backlog of child abuse cases to build up in Wairarapa are not facing disciplinary action.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has held a national inquiry into child abuse investigations, after a backlog of more than 100 case files was revealed in the Wairarapa district.
The authority says urgent action is needed over inconsistencies in record-keeping, a lack of properly trained staff and high workloads.
Members of one child abuse team, in Whangarei, were diverted to road policing and other duties.
Another report by the agency on how the police manage child abuse cases nationwide is due to be issued by the end of the year. Justice Lowell Goddard says that that report will reveal exactly what happened and why.
On Tuesday, Police Commissioner Howard Broad confirmed that an employment investigation is under way in Rotorua, where up to 25 boxes of cases files were put in a cupboard and ignored.
Police headquarters says it will not confirm whether similar investigations are under way in other districts where failures occurred.
Officers 'stretched too thin'
The Police Association is warning against blaming frontline police officers for failures in child abuse investigations.
Association vice president Stuart Mills says officers in some districts have been stretched too thin because of failures by senior officers to recognise the complex nature of such investigations.
