The officer, referred to as Officer E in an Independent Police Conduct Authority report, was found guilty by the authority of using "excessive force ... [that was] contrary to law".

A police dog handler has been censured for "stomping" on the head of a burglary suspect during an arrest in south Auckland, making the man bleed from his ear.

The officer, referred to as Officer E in an Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report, was found guilty by the authority of using "excessive force ... [that was] contrary to law".

Officer E was one of five officers involved in the arrest of two men in Mangere East in December last year.

On December 29, police responded to a report of two suspects trying to break into a house in Kiwi Esplanade.

Four officers in two patrol cars arrived at the scene and managed to catch both men.

One was detained by one officer, while the second man fled and was caught by the other three officers.

The suspect was large and was resisting arrest - he was pinned on his front with his hands under him and refused to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.

As the suspect and three officers struggled, Officer E arrived on scene and immediately "stomped" on the suspect's head, causing his ear to bleed, the IPCA said.

The officer's actions had been criticised by his colleagues, the authority reported in its decision on Thursday.

"All three officers provided the authority with accounts of Officer E arriving at the scene and promptly 'stomping' on [the suspect's] head three to five times.

"All three officers describe Officer E's actions as 'excessive' and all made their concerns known to their supervisor in the days following the incident."

In his defence, Officer E said he thought the suspect might have been armed and reaching for a weapon under his body at the time.

He also said he applied force to the suspect's head to keep it from hitting the ground as he thrashed around.

However, the authority found that "Officer E's explanations are untenable".

"He immediately brought his foot forcefully down on [the suspect's] head. There were other alternatives available to Officer E including communication, assisting the officers with physically wrenching [the suspect's] arms out or using the approved tactic of baton strikes to his triceps," the authority found.

"Although there are variations in the descriptions of how Officer E acted, it involved, at a minimum, the violent application of force on at least two occasions, to gain compliance, which was not justified in the circumstances."

The three other officers all questioned Officer E's actions .

One of the arresting officers told the authority that Officer E "just walked up to [the suspect] and started stomping his head ... [raising his] right foot into a 90 degree angle…and stomped straight down to [his] head".

As a result, he said, the suspect began "bleeding from his ear and started screaming".

Another officer, in his report, said: "for [Officer E] to come along and do that, without any sort of information on what we'd just been doing, I don't really understand why he did it".

Auckland district police Superintendent Richard Chambers said he was satisfied with the authority's findings.

"While it's disappointing that one of my staff has been judged by the authority to have used excessive force during an attempted arrest, I accept that, in all probability, he could have used a less forceful option to ensure the offender complied with the instructions of all officers at the December 29 incident."