A police officer was so keen to impress his brother-in-law that he used a police database to find sensitive information about the man’s ex-partner, and took him on an unofficial ride-along, activating the siren and reaching speeds of up to 146km/h.
This week the police officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to representative charges of dishonestly accessing a computer system and reckless driving.
NZME understands he is still employed by the New Zealand police but has been stood down.
In the summary of facts, the police said the constable wanted to show his brother-in-law he had access to privileged information “increasing his importance, influence and credibility”.
According to the summary, the police officer used the Police National Intelligence Application database multiple times for non-police business.
The database holds a broad range of sensitive material, including private personal information, incident and intelligence reports and car registration details.
In 2024, he used the database on his phone to look up information on his brother-in-law’s ex-partner, such as the names of her current and past boyfriends and family members.
He then shared that knowledge with his brother-in-law.
But that wasn’t the first time he accessed the database for personal use, using it multiple times the year before when buying and selling cars.
He checked a car he had sold had been changed to the name of the new buyer and to see if two cars he was looking at buying were of interest to police.
While looking at a third car with his brother-in-law, he looked it up on the database on his phone, in front of the seller and, finding the seller was not the registered owner, challenged him on whether the sale was legit.
An unofficial ride-along
Early one morning last year, the constable was given a marked patrol car to attend court.
Around 1pm, he stopped off at home in the car and asked his brother-in-law if he wanted to go for a drive.
As they drove in a residential area, in a speed limit of 50km/h, he turned on the red and blue flashing lights and siren and accelerated, reaching speeds of up to about 146km/h.
He drove through a street with roadworks at about 101km/h then through a semi-rural 80km/h area at around 135km/h.
He then again got up to 141km/h in a 60km/h area with his emergency lights and sirens still going, overtaking traffic that pulled over for him.
During this time, he crossed to the other side of the road ahead of oncoming traffic.
As he passed another police car, he briefly slowed down and turned off his lights and siren before turning left and accelerating away to 122km/h with his siren blaring, speeding past a primary school and overtaking more cars that pulled over for him.
This took less than an hour, and the police officer dropped off his brother and returned the car to the police station.
His brother-in-law took videos of the police officer driving and laughing.
When spoken to by police the officer declined to comment.
He pleaded guilty to the two representative charges this week, and is set to be sentenced in February.
