Some 10% of Tonga Police staff (35 people) have been dismissed, are serving time in prison or are under investigation for dishonesty, brutality or bribery since 2012, the retiring Police Commissioner Grant O'Fee said today.

“You might think that's an odd thing to be trumpeting at a retirement but it is really important for the public to see that we deal with those issues and we do not shy away from them,” he told a farewell parade at Tonga Police HQ in Nuku'alofa this morning.

The Tonga Police currently has 340 staff.

A New Zealander, Police Commissioner O'Fee said that during the two and a half years he had been in Tonga he had made many unpopular decisions. “But popularity wasn't one of my objectives when I came here,” he said.

“I've had a lot of advice from many people - who said amongst other things just don't try too hard, just do what you can and accept what it is ... But it is rather difficult to accept that it is what it is, if your job is to make it what it isn't.”

He thanked all the police staff who have honoured their oath.

“Our biggest challenge is the moral leadership and the moral courage that our leaders have to show to our staff. The staff and the young men and women who are on parade today deserve good leadership. They deserve good leaders. They deserve leaders who are prepared to take those hard decisions.”

Commissioner O'Fee (64) was contracted by the Tonga government for three years and is leaving Tonga after two years and five months of service. He continued the police reform that was started by another New Zealander, Commissioner Chris Kelley.

Commissioner O'Fee thanked the Minister of Police Hon. Siosifa Tu'utafaiva for his support and advice. “Without your assistance, what we have achieved would not have been achieved. ... It's very different to the relationship between a commissioner and a minister in New Zealand and it took me a little while to get used to that,” he said.

“What have we achieved? We have a professional standards unit that is as good as anything in the Pacific and it's better than most. ...Now we are approaching the category where we clean up our mess when we find it and that's painful but that's something we have to do,” Commissioner O'Fee said.

He also spoke of the successes of youth schemes, drug education, training, the domestic violence unit, new stations built at Ha'apai, Mua and Nukunuku and renovations starting at Nuku'alofa central and the garage, achieved through projects under foreign aid.

“I have some satisfaction but I have some disappointments. We still have, let's not fool ourselves, a long way to go. We still have work to do on investigations, prosecutions, care of victims and domestic violence and all of these things are sometimes substandard and we have a way to go on those things,” he said.

“It's a great honour to have entrusted in me, a state house boy from Porirua, the Commissionership of Tonga Police and I am honoured to have been given the opportunity and it's something I will never forget,” he said.

The Deputy Commissioner Operations, Pelenatita Fe'ao, in acknowledging the service of Commissioner O'Fee and thanking his wife Kathy for her support, said that he had come during a time of reform and restructuring and had brought positive changes to Tonga Police. This included the implementation of a new organisational structure, including promotion of merit.

“Promotion of merit is quite new for Tonga Police,” she said. The changes had been part of an effort to reintroduce integrity into the Tonga Police.

Commissioner O'Fee and his wife will return to New Zealand next week.

Before coming to Tonga, Commander O'Fee had 44-years of experience in the New Zealand Police and was Commander of Operation Rugby World Cup 2011 in Auckland. He joined the New Zealand Police as a police cadet in 1968 and had various postings in Wellington, Porirua and was District Commander at Tasman District from 2000-08.