Scandal and scrutiny: The year that tested New Zealand’s top cop

Wednesday, 3 December 2025

After a year of scandals and scrutiny, top cop Richard Chambers is setting the stage for reform, with a refresh of the police top brass on the horizon and all senior officers’ work devices due for an audit. Senior crime journalist Katie Ham reports.

Twelve months ago, Richard Chambers walked into Police National Headquarters as the freshly minted Commissioner, his new epaulettes gleaming and enthusiasm unbridled.

Buoyed by a posting with Interpol in France, he spoke openly about the back-to-basics direction he wanted to chart. His priorities were clear, the skies looked calm, and the runway was set for change.

But a storm was brewing. Behind closed doors, the most explosive policing scandal in nearly two decades was unfolding, centred around former second-in-command Jevon McSkimming.

It was a year that started with the death of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming, New Zealand’s first policewoman killed in the line of duty, and culminated in a damning police watchdog report that laid bare fractures within the force.

“It’s definitely been full-on […] We’ve had a lot to navigate,” Chambers told The Post in a sit-down interview earlier this week.

The usual churn of policing pressures continued too: alcohol breath-testing systems were exposed as being falsified, police recruits were slipping through without meeting basic fitness or literacy standards, and the hunt for long-standing fugitive Tom Phillips was about to end in a blaze of gunfire after four years on the run.

Asked to sum up his first year as Commissioner in just one word, Chambers hesitated: “Oh shit,” he said.

In what was more a reaction to being caught off-guard by the question than a considered assessment, it’s a phrase that unintentionally summarised the year remarkably well.

Chambers laughed at this suggestion, before landing on a more measured word: “Proud. Even with the hard stuff, I know that I’ve got 15,000 colleagues who do an incredible job across the country, and I’m incredibly proud of what they do.”

Perhaps there were some days “shit” might be more apt, he acknowledged, but there hadn’t been a single day yet that he didn't love the job - or a day he thought he couldn’t do it.

A ‘chapter of policing’ mired by scandal

It was less than 48 hours before he was sworn in as Commissioner that Chambers was first briefed on his deputy Jevon McSkimming’s affair with a young woman later dubbed “Ms Z”.

Detective Superintendent Darryl Sweeney told him an investigation was under way into complaints filed by Ms Z.

It was through that investigation that police discovered child sexual exploitation and bestiality material on McSkimming’s work devices. This was flagged with Chambers “immediately”, he recalled, first through a phone call, followed up by a written report.

Chambers was left to reconcile an unthinkable truth: a man he’d worked alongside for years had been viewing some of the most vile material possible - on police devices, and in an office just down the hallway from his own.

According to a summary of McSkimming’s offending, seen by The Post, he had searched for objectionable material on Google more than 5000 times since July 2020, the earliest point from which records could be retrieved, and many of those searches sought artificially-generated material.

There were real images too, though. According to the summary, of the 2945 images assessed as objectionable, 290 involved real children or young people.

“It’s disgraceful, it’s inconceivable,” Chambers reflected on the moment he found out about McSkimming’s offending. “The fact that it had been going on for so many years […] it’s quite unbelievable.”

Perhaps most baffling of all was where McSkimming found the time, Chambers said.

“My biggest challenge this year has been that there are simply not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. How someone can have such a senior role in the police and find time to do that beggars belief. He’s been part of a chapter of policing that I want us to move on from.”

It’s a chapter he’s eager to distance himself from, previously telling The Post there were no executive barbecues, Christmas parties, or after-work hangouts under former commissioner Andrew Coster, where he might have heard the gossip others did.

Chambers categorically denies knowing about the affair or objectionable material before each of the briefings by Sweeney.

The fallout of the subsequent Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) criticism into police’s handling of complaints filed by Ms Z was spectacular. Large swathes of the policing top brass were taken out in one fell swoop.

Former deputy police commissioner Chris de Wattignar, deputy commissioner Tania Kura and assistant commissioner Paul Basham were among the casualties. Chambers’ predecessor, Andrew Coster, is still clinging onto his role as Chief Executive of the Social Investment Agency but pressure for him to be rolled is mounting.

Overall, the whole torrid affair was one Chambers said he was “disappointed” New Zealand Police would forever be marked by.

“I was hugely disappointed to read the [IPCA] report. There was a whole cohort of staff - most of which are now former - who let the rest of the organisation down. And that’s the kicker for me because it involved such senior officers right at the top.

“I’ve used the word disgraceful. It lacked leadership and it lacked integrity. Not only do other police officers need to believe in their leadership and the integrity of the most senior team, but so should the New Zealand public. That’s the bit that will have the really long, lasting ripple effect.”

Re-building the police executive

Having already completed a restructure of the top echelons of the force earlier in the year, the net result of the ripple effects of the IPCA report was a depleted police executive, Chambers acknowledged.

“Hopefully soon we’ll have two new deputies in place, which will then mean that we have some new assistant commissioners too.”

Chambers was particularly pleased to have received 12 applications for the role of assistant commissioners, and 22 for district commanders: “I don’t remember a time where we had so many people showing up and wanting to be a part of the leadership […] The calibre of applicants has been exceptional”.

To prevent a repeat of the McSkimming saga, each applicant was undergoing “very, very thorough” vetting, including checks of their internet usage.

“I don’t want the New Zealand Police to experience anything like this ever again,” he said.

To ensure there are no “rotten apples” left among the top brass, Chambers has also ordered that all the leadership will have their devices scrutinised in the New Year.

“We’ll be running a process to have a close look at everybody in those roles to make sure there’s nothing else that’s going to create a problem. And, touch wood, we don’t,” Chambers said, tapping the table in front of him.

‘Rotten apples’ pop up across the motu

Since McSkimming’s offending was uncovered, investigations into the work devices of other officers have revealed further instances of potentially criminal material.

The Post understands a senior Waitematā detective is among three officers who might face serious criminal charges.

An additional 100 police officers are under investigation for “falsely or erroneously' recording 30,000 alcohol breath tests.

While no charges have been laid yet in relation to any of the investigations, the question then becomes whether Chambers can still confidently say there are no systemic issues within police.

Certainly, it would be easier to dismiss what was happening as the actions of a select few rotten apples, but has the rot spread further than Chambers’ realised?

“I look at it like this. There’s more than 15,000 people in the organisation. We’re all human beings. No one’s perfect. But we’re going to have amongst that many staff, people who let the rest of us down.

“What I want to ensure is that we have systems and processes that identify them […] it’s not like suddenly we’ve now got bad apples. In a big organisation, they're always going to be there. What I’ve done is put in place systems and processes that help identify them so that we can deal with them.”

As Commissioner, Chambers said he was determined to root out any “bad apples” and deal with them so they don’t cast a shadow across the organisation as a whole.

Looking ahead

The past 12 months have been far from the orderly transition into top cop that Chambers likely envisioned. Rather, they’ve been a relentless education in crisis management.

He began the year in Nelson, arriving in the middle of the night to be with staff after Lyn Flemming’s death. He’ll return this year, manning the BBQ before clocking on for the night shift, shoulder to shoulder with the officers he leads.

By the New Year, he hopes his new executive team will be in place, giving him a rare two weeks of leave to spend with his wife and two daughters.

Of all the decisions he had to make this year, his biggest regret - aside from a speeding ticket on the way to the airport and a “brief dip” in Oriental Parade during a tsunami warning with visiting FBI Director Kash Patel - is the time he missed with his family.

With a new team, Chambers hopes to shift the focus from cleanup to change - to finally steer the police toward the reforms he joined to make, and hopefully spend his time “mopping up less mess”.

You can read more about Richard Chambers’ background and policing career here.