A former senior detective has won part of her bullying claims against the Northland CIB.
Photo: NZME

A culture long whispered about as the Northland Criminal Investigation Branch “boys’ club” has now cost the police $15,000 after an inquiry found a senior female detective inspector was bullied and frozen out by her peers.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ruled the behaviour went beyond personality clashes, describing a pattern of co-ordinated resistance that police failed to address, leaving Detective Inspector Bridget Doell disadvantaged in her role.

Doell, a 30‑year police veteran and the first woman to hold a Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) detective inspector role in Northland, took her case to the ERA, claiming she faced undermining behaviour, bullying, exclusion and gender‑based hostility from colleagues between 2020 and 2023.

She said the New Zealand Police failed to provide a safe workplace, which breached its contract and health and safety obligations, and forced her to take a job transfer to Auckland.

At the ERA hearing in July last year, the police argued that any difficulties Doell experienced were a result of her manner and approach to staff.

The police also submitted that the transfer was undertaken at Doell’s own initiative as she wanted to enrol her daughter in an Auckland school.

When Doell arrived at Northland CIB in 2020, she expected the usual induction for a senior appointee – a pōwhiri, introductions to key partners and a guided orientation through the district. But none of it happened.

She told the authority this omission signalled something deeper; that she was stepping into a culture she said was known by many within police to be “the boys’ club”.

Doell was one of two field crime managers, the other being detective inspector (DI) Rhys Johnson.

They reported to district crime manager DI David Begbie, who reported to former superintendent Anthony Hill.

In her role, Doell had four detective senior sergeants reporting to her, including Kevyn Verry.

Evidence showed their relationship was strained and Verry struggled with her leadership.

Private group chats between Verry and other senior sergeants revealed a co-ordinated resistance to Doell’s leadership, complete with nicknames, “the ice queen” emoji and commentary that undermined her authority.

The most serious incident occurred in February 2023, when Verry sent an email to four people in the CIB containing inappropriate and undermining comments about Doell while she was acting crime manager.

The email was shared among others and one concerned employee sent the email to Hill. Doell was not aware of its existence until months later.

When she did become aware of it, she complained to human resources (HR).

The police then arranged for Verry to apologise to Doell. It was a response which ERA authority member Andrew Gane found was “flawed”.

Gane noted in the ERA’s decision that the police were already “on notice” about Verry’s behaviour following an email he had sent to Doell criticising her leadership a year prior, which they failed to investigate and did not provide her with appropriate support.

“Emotional or social bullying, such as exclusion, nicknames, emojis, spreading rumours, may seem funny or harmless to the perpetrator, and be less obvious than physical bullying, making it harder to identify for everyone involved,” Gane said.

He found there was a repeated and directed pattern of “upward bullying” toward Doell, and police were aware of the culture in Northland when she came into the role.

The police’s actions in investigating the email and subsequent engagement and communications with Doell, to see what support or redress she may have needed, failed to demonstrate the good faith and procedural fairness requirements, Gane found.

“In the circumstances, I find DI Doell was unjustifiably disadvantaged by police failing to adequately investigate the February 23 email and failing to take remedial action or provide adequate support.”

Gane also found police breached Doell’s employment contract and breached her health and safety obligations.

In relation to her other claims against various detectives, the authority found that although they provided context for the culture of Northland CIB, they were filed out of time.

Gane said the claims were described too vaguely, or not enough information was provided for the police to respond.

“Police have not consented to the raising of these grievances out of time and DI Doell cannot proceed with these claims.”

The police were ordered to pay Doell $15,000 in compensation.

Doell said in a statement released to NZME that she respected the ERA’s decision and was satisfied with the outcome.

“I am pleased that the authority confirmed the bullying conduct towards me by some subordinate police officers in Northland, the missteps in the police investigation process that followed and the distress caused to me,” she said.

“I am very thankful to police colleagues in Northland and elsewhere who have provided me with support. I am confident that our executive leadership will be able to address these issues in the future.”

The New Zealand Police did not provide a comment on the outcome, as requested by NZME.

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.