Labour’s Rakesh Naidoo’s final weeks with police won’t involve any policing
Rakesh Naidoo is on his way out of New Zealand Police and, quite possibly, into Parliament this election.
Until he leaves, Naidoo will not undertake active campaigning, exercise police powers or wear a police uniform.
Labour candidate Rakesh Naidoo will return to work for his final weeks with New Zealand Police, but he will not exercise police powers, wear a uniform or represent the organisation at public events.
Instead, the outgoing police superintendent will focus on handing over his current role and assisting with a project intended to embed cultural competency training across policing, NZ Herald reported on Wednesday.
Naidoo, who is ranked 13th on Labour’s party list, has been on leave since his candidacy was announced in June. He is expected to remain with Police until the end of August.
Assistant Police Commissioner Tim Anderson told the Herald that Naidoo’s “initial focus” would be establishing a handover to ensure his team had a smooth transition and remained well supported.
Naidoo is Police’s ethnic, iwi and communities national partnerships manager. He will also assist with work aimed at embedding cultural competency training across service, victims and resolutions.
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Anderson described Naidoo as a “respected and valued member of police”.
Until he leaves, Naidoo will not undertake active campaigning, exercise police powers, wear a police uniform or represent Police at meetings and events involving external stakeholders or community members.
The arrangement means Naidoo will remain employed by Police, but his final weeks will be confined to internal and transitional work as he prepares to enter party politics.
Labour has also maintained that Naidoo will not campaign until after he has left Police.
His candidacy caused controversy after Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell said he should have disclosed earlier that he had been in discussions with Labour.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has said those conversations had been taking place for months before Naidoo was confirmed as a candidate on June 8.
Mitchell said it would have been “the respectful and right thing to do” for Naidoo to disclose the conversations when they began. He later doubled down on his criticism, saying Police should have had an opportunity to put safeguards in place.
Chambers later told the Herald that Naidoo should have informed Police after he was first approached by Labour and said it had become “untenable” for him to remain in his existing role.
Police also announced a review into whether Naidoo had shared sensitive information while he was in talks with Labour.
At the time, Chambers told the Herald he was not aware of any evidence showing Naidoo had passed information to an inappropriate external party, but said it was too early to rule anything out.
The Herald reported that the review was expected to examine meetings Naidoo attended, the information available to him and whether any of it had been shared with a third party.
The controversy also prompted senior community figures to defend Naidoo and question the public treatment of his candidacy.
Police have not publicly said whether the review has been completed or what it has found. Naidoo has not commented publicly on his candidacy or the circumstances surrounding his departure from Police.
