Darryl Sweeney has served in the NZ Police since 1996. He qualified as a Detective in 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Management (Transformation & Change) & three Diplomas.
Over the course of his career, he has worked on and led many high-profile serious crime investigations across New Zealand, from organised crime to homicides.
In 2016 he was promoted to Detective Inspector and led the Canterbury Child Protection & Adult Sexual Assault teams, then to the high Offender Taskforce and Organised Crime teams into 2018.
Darryl led the missing persons unit during the 2011 Canterbury Earthquake leading & managing the largest set of Coronial hearings in NZ history for 185 deceased. He was the OC investigation for the CTV building failure where 115 people died.
In 2011 he deployed to Afghanistan as part of the joint mission with Police and Defence, in a mentoring position to senior Afghan police leaders. In 2017 Darryl lead an investigation in Washington DC where a recording device was placed in the NZ Embassy by a senior NZ military staffer. In 1994/5 he spent six months in Baghdad, Iraq as part of the United Nations Special Commission.
Darryl trained as a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) in Australia for counter terrorism operations. He was the Christchurch Operations Manager for the March 15 Terror attacks responsible for the deployment of over 1000 staff for 3 weeks following the attacks.
He has presented and led serious crime courses including electronic interception & Detective Sergeants leadership development at the Royal New Zealand Police College. He was a member of the Clandestine Laboratory Investigation Team, training in Queensland Australia.
In 2021 Darryl commenced as a Detective Inspector in the National Organised Crime Group, investigating TNOC offending. He has recently nationally coordinated the NZ Police National response to illicit firearms and Operation Cobalt the 2022 National Gang focus.
He has recently moved to a role as the National Manager of Undercover and Human Source units across NZ.
