MPs should stay out of police issues

Stuff reports:

ACT leader David Seymour has defended a letter sharing “concerns” about police treatment of an Auckland eye surgeon being questioned over his wife’s death. …

On Sunday, the NZ Herald reported that Seymour wrote to Auckland District Commander Karyn Malthus in 2022, saying he’d been asked by Polkinghorne to share some concerns about his treatment. …

Seymour told Stuff the letter was sent before any charges against Polkinghorne were laid.

“An electorate MP’s job is to serve their constituents. I had a constituent contact me with concerns over the way they felt they had been treated by police. As is made clear in the letter, the intention was to pass on the constituent’s concerns to police,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

“Police responded assuring good practice was being followed and there was no further correspondence on the matter. This all took place before any charges were being pursued or reporting on the case had taken place.”

Seymour was not a Minister in 2022, so this isn’t a case of the Executive trying to interfere with a Police investigation. However I still think it was ill advised. This was a homicide investigation and MPs should not advocate on behalf of individuals. It is quite proper to do so to government agencies, but not to the Police. A sensible course of action would be to assist them with a complaint to the IPCA, or assist them with getting a lawyer. But not to write on their behalf if it is an ongoing investigation.