A New Zealand cop steps away from the force and deploys his skills for the defense.
Defense lawyers were always the enemy, the overpaid smart-alecks who did their best to help guilty people walk free.
I despised them and all they stood for.
I grew up in a cop family and only ever wanted to be a cop (or Batman, but that seemed unlikely). For 27 years I did that, albeit with a couple of unpaid breaks overseas to see something of the world, and I voluntarily transferred to South Auckland, the busiest, most violent district in the country. I trained as a detective and spent 20 years investigating serious crimes, running major investigations into homicides, child abuse, sex crimes, and all manner of brutality.
It was everything I’d ever dreamed of — chasing bad guys, helping people in need, racing around with the adrenaline pumping.
All the while, I locked horns with defense lawyers, usually winning but not always. I couldn’t figure out how they slept at night.
Roll on Covid, and the country was slammed. Police were the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and, in my opinion, were very poorly treated by those in power (to the point that they offered us a 0% raise at the pay round negotiations).
I knew some ex-cop PIs, and always in the back of my mind there had been a plan to go down that route when I eventually retired from the police. I did my research and talked to people, making copious notes which I stashed away for “one day.”
One day came in mid-2021, and I put the wheels in motion. I wasn’t burnt out and bitter, but I had done my dash.
One Last Case
The last murder I worked on, I was assigned as OC Suspects, leading the team that focuses on the suspects, as you would expect. Two gangsters had gone to a guy’s house and blown him away with a shotgun on his front doorstep. All over a failed drug deal worth a couple of hundred bucks.
Hardly worth someone’s life.
We did the business, sewed it up nicely, and locked up the two bad guys. I gave evidence at their trial this year, and they both went down, as they should have. It was a good and satisfying outcome.
What I didn’t like about it was the leadership shown. The guy running the job was a guy I’d worked with for years. Recently promoted and suddenly full of himself, he must have been the best detective around, if you listened to him. The way he spoke to some of the staff surprised me. He even gave me a serve one day in front of the troops, which went down like a cup of cold sick.
That was the moment I realized things had changed. Not the job — there’d always been people like that. But I had changed. I was over the bloated egos and power games. It was a moment of truth and humility, and really, maturity.
I was no longer a good fit for an organization that hadn’t changed with me. It was time to move on.
To the Dark Side
The plan from the back burner got fired up and brought to the forefront. The PI industry is not huge in this country, and everyone seems to know someone. To my surprise, they were also very helpful and generous with their advice.
Based on their counsel, I targeted defense lawyers as my client market. New Zealand has a Legal Aid system where lawyers can be paid for by the taxpayer. Smart ones like to have a PI on their defense team.
Walking out the station door in March 2022, I had no idea how things were going to play out. I knew there was a market there and that my skillset was transferable, but I didn’t know if I had the right mindset to do defense work.
Turns out, I do. Investigating is the same process no matter who you’re working for. The truth is still the truth. You don’t have to believe everyone, you just do the job. Fortunately, NZ Police doesn’t have a big corruption problem; what they do have is a training and retention problem. It too often shows in the quality of the work: investigations aren’t completed because the next job is waiting, or the overworked officer doesn’t see the bigger picture or take the extra step.
In the last year and a half, I’ve had a number of cases where I never would have authorized a prosecution based on what was presented. I’ve had some that were clear stitch-ups by malicious complainants. Some of the defendants are bad, bad people. But in the back of my head, I’m not working for that individual. I’m working to keep the system honest.
Some of the defendants are bad, bad people. But in the back of my head, I’m not working for that individual. I’m working to keep the system honest.
If someone I know gets themselves in a scrape, I want to know that they will get a fair deal.
Proving Ground
One of my early cases was a young guy charged with a serious assault. He was involved in a “stand-up” outside a city center club, a nose-to-nose confrontation with a guy he had history with. In a flurry of action, the other guy went down, glass smashed, the guy was bleeding from a head wound, and the young bloke walked away.
Uniformed police were nearby, watching for trouble, because it’s that kind of club. They chased the young guy, grabbed him, and locked him up. They didn’t interview him. They didn’t get any witness details. They didn’t photograph the scene. The victim told them he didn’t know what happened.
The young guy was charged with “wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm,” a very serious charge.
His lawyer, who I’d done a small job for already, asked me to have a look at it. I was into it like a rat up a drainpipe. I interviewed the defendant and his two mates who were there with him. They said a third party walking past had punched the victim over the defendant’s shoulder. The victim was holding a bottle and dropped it, cutting his head on it when he landed.
Hmm, a bit dubious, I thought. None of them were really top-class citizens. But then I viewed the CCTV. The cops had seized footage from the city cameras but never reviewed it. The footage clearly showed a group of hoods walking along, just as the witnesses had described, and stopping to watch the confrontation. It wasn’t crystal-clear footage, but you could see one of them throw a punch over the defendant’s shoulder and drop the victim to the ground, before calmly walking off.
Before calmly walking off right in front of the officer, who’d claimed that he saw the whole thing.
I tracked them on CCTV further up the street and found a couple of witnesses who saw the same group assault another person, just a random drunk staggering off to find a taxi home. Police attended that incident.
I guided the lawyer on what information to request from police.
The evidence I gathered painted a very clear picture of a guy being falsely accused of a serious crime. The lawyer was able to take it to the prosecutor and lay the facts on the table. Once they saw what I’d put together, they quickly withdrew the charge.
The lesson for me? Police don’t always get it right, even when they think they have. An impartial perspective can literally be the difference between jail and freedom.
Unfortunately, the real assailant was never identified. Another lesson for me there: It wasn’t my job to find the real bad guy. Nobody was paying for that.
And Never Going Back
Cops refer to working for the defense as “going to the dark side.” I knew that some former colleagues would frown on my move, and in that regard they didn’t let me down. There were a few silly comments and a cold shoulder from some, but those who really knew me know that I haven’t changed.
To be honest, I don’t really miss policing. Some of the people, for sure, but not the job itself.
I actually think I see the legal system more holistically now, flaws and all. It’s not a perfect system. Police and prosecutors don’t always get it right, even with the best intentions.
And the defense lawyers? Pretty decent people, actually.
I’ve come across the odd one that I’m happy not to see again, but the vast majority are good to deal with. They know what they’re doing, and they know what they don’t know — by that I mean they stay in their lane and don’t try to investigate their own cases. They appreciate the skills and knowledge that an experienced investigator brings to their team. I share my views on the case with them, but I don’t try to tell them how to do their job. I’m there to bring evidence to the table; they decide what to do with it.
Accompanying me on this transition from being a cop through-and-through, blue to the core, to a dedicated professional investigator, have been the likes of Mark and Wendy Murnan, John Morris, and Larry Kaye. Adam Visnic and Pursuit Magazine itself. PI Perspectives with Matt Spaier. (I was a guest with him on Episode 189 – check it out.)
It’s fantastic to hear the inside word from experienced PIs like these, even if a lot of their work is in a different field to mine (workplace injury is very limited here). I’ve picked up many tips and tricks, to echo John Morris!
My family no longer worries that I won’t be coming home from a shift (although my wife Tanya does get anxious when I serve processes in rough areas — maybe I shouldn’t have told her about that gangster I served who brandished a fork at me).
Tanya helps out with the admin side of the business and, now that she’s licensed, has picked up a couple of inquiries for me. I’m home a lot more, I’m not as stressed, and life is good.
I have no regrets. This is where I want to be.
About the author:
Dave Honiss is the director, lead investigator and general dog’s body of Focus Investigations Ltd, based in Pukekohe, New Zealand. He served 27 years in the NZ Police, investigating all sorts of crime in some of the busiest, most violent parts of the country. Honiss left in March 2022 to run the PI business, and has now expanded with an office in Christchurch (covering the South Island of NZ).
Married to Tanya, the two have a 12-year-old son Harry, and his family is his focus (pun completely intended) and also his rock.