Teamwork celebrates the team approach that enables the CIB to maximise their efforts. From the core team of detectives – each with a specific assignment – to the specialist teams within the police such as Profilers and Armed Offenders Squads, to the co-opting of the media into the team and ultimately, the public at large.
We work as a team to create our luck by seeing a huge range of people. Interviewing a lot of people looking for the little thing, or the things that will break the investigation and give us the result. Detective Superintendent Rod Drew
Operation Mist will go down in recent CIB history as one of the most baffling cases. When a sinister bunker is discovered in the bush, detectives find themselves on a most peculiar mission.
‘We didn't know who was involved, we didn't know the intent it was going to be used for. But we needed to make sure that no one was in immediate danger in the time we were doing these initial enquiries as well. So we had to deploy staff up there amongst the bush watching the bunker. Twenty four hours a day.’ Former Detective Sergeant Murray Porter
It seemed that a kidnap was about to happen but detectives didn’t know who the target was, or where or when it would take place. In the end a hunble block of cheese would help lead the team to stopping the crime before it happened.
Again it is the tiny details that must be considered. But with no leads the detectives investigating the case of south Auckland serial rapist Joseph Thompson were feeling the inevitable pressure.
‘Every rape that happened you felt like you’d failed the victim because you hadn’t caught the guy, he was still out there going.’ Former Detective Sergeant Dave Henwood
Faced with a very sinister and elusive rapist, the detectives set up the Criminal Profiling Unit. This profiling created a suspect list and led to a ‘blooding’ phase that ultimately got the much-needed DNA hit on Joseph Thompson.
The criminal profiling unit would play an integral role in future investigations. But not every case achieves a successful result. When CIB legend Former Detective Inspector Steve Rutherford was called in to reinvestigate the ‘sudden death’ of Janine Law some 6 years earlier, he employed good old fashioned detective work (digging and hunting) along with the newly formed criminal profiling unit to find the killer. In Teamwork he talks candidly about this surprising investigation and the difficulties he and his team faced.
The mid 2000’s saw the realities of international drug importation impacting on our shores. The now booming business of drugs demanded detectives take a multi-faceted approach, working with other agencies including NZ Customs to combat it. Operation Major was the biggest bust to date with a street value of over 5 million.
‘We found them with the drugs all over the floor with scales and a range of cell phones ready to make calls for the distribution. There was 5 or 6 firearms loaded in the house. An M16, a number of pistols, revolvers. This just brought it home to my staff and everybody else that this is a dangerous business.’ Detective Inspector Bruce Good
Strategy when dealing with the media is an aspect that detectives consider carefully. The decisions they make about what information they give out or hold back, could have dire consequences for the inquiry. In Teamwork we examine the vastly different approaches to dealing with media, including Detective Senior Sergeant Tusha Penny’s passionate mission to get a homicide case the media attention it deserved.
Facing the horror on a daily basis takes it toll and the detectives talk honestly about what they see and what they take away from investigating these heinous crimes.
‘I think a little bit sticks with deaths like the death of Lillybing. And so it’s just that little piece that sticks and it might be another one that sticks a little bit more. So it does have an effect downstream I don't have any doubt about that at all. It certainly has on me.’
Detective Superintendent Rod Drew
Under international scrutiny with one of the most puzzling of ‘whodunnits’ in his policing career, Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward led the manhunt to find the killer of tourist Birgit Brauer. The case is a shining example of how the public actually act as the eyes and ears for a police investigation.
Understanding more about the detectives than ever before, we find out what drives them to do this work, to take on these seemingly impossible missions for the truth. In actual fact it’s quite simple as Superintendent Mike Bush explains – ‘Everyone likes you know to, to solve a mystery. And that is often a driver for us – it’s a driver for me. But really the main driver is one of getting some satisfaction for your victim. Actually bringing people to the courts of justice is a real sense of achievement.’
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