Information released to the Herald also shows 887 sworn officers were accused of using excessive force or assault during the past three years, but just nine were charged and one convicted. Photo: Getty Images

More than 2600 allegations of police misconduct were levelled at more than 2270 officers and staff nationwide from January to September last year.

However, the latest police conduct statistics show complaints about officer and employee behaviour is trending down after rising by 15 per cent in 2014.

Information released to the Herald also shows 887 sworn officers were accused of using excessive force or assault during the past three years, but just nine were charged and one convicted.

Last year former constable Jeremy Ata Malifa was sentenced for illegally using the police's national intelligence database to stalk dozens of women he found sexually attractive over several years.

The women he pursued were largely witnesses and victims at crime scenes and incidents across Auckland which he'd attended as a police officer.

He was sentenced to 400 hours of community work, 12 months' supervision, six months' community detention and ordered to pay $200 to each of his victims.

The database stores people's personal details, vehicles, locations, phone numbers and offences.

Judge Heemi Taumaunu said at Malifa's sentencing in the Auckland District Court that the former New Zealand junior volleyball star was "manipulating victims who were already vulnerable ... [in a] predatory manner".

"As a result of your offending it is an aggravating feature that you have now made it more difficult for females who are required to provide, or are requested to provide, information to male police officers to trust those male police officers in the future that they will not abuse the position of trust that they are in," the judge said.

Although not counted in the latest stats, in March 2016 former constable David Paul Mills was sentenced to home detention for a year by Judge Gus Andree Wiltens after pleading guilty to charges of grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard, injuring with intent and common assault.

Mills had resigned from the police before he was charged after an investigation into the assaults of three young men in separate incidents while Mills was on duty.

He first came under investigation in April 2015 after he kicked and punched a 23-year-old man in the head, fracturing his eye socket. The attack was caught on camera by the police Eagle helicopter flying above.

The investigation revealed two other earlier assaults.

In February 2015, Mills, investigating a report of wilful damage at the Manurewa train station, chases down a suspect - a 15-year-old boy - and tackles him, before punching him in the head several times.

In April that year another 15-year-old boy was arrested for stealing a car. When lying face down on the road Mills ran towards him and kicked him in the head.

And just two days later he attacked the 23-year-old man who was hiding from police after stealing a car.

When initially interviewed by police about the complaints, Mills said, that two of the three suspects were resisting arrest and the force he used was necessary.

Judge Andree Wiltens said at Mills' sentencing: "The aggravating factors, as I say, is that you were a serving police officer and the serious assault on the third male involving not only an attack to the head, but the fact that they were all defenceless lying prone on the ground, while one 15-year-old boy was being held by two of your colleagues."