THE ARMING DEBATE: Potential first responders could be at great risk
Despite Police Association concerns that financial cuts, a reduction in defensive tactics training, and the introduction of tiered firearms training would put police officers' safety at risk, Police have pushed through these changes.
The nightmare of having police officers on the street untrained in firearms use and put in potentially life-threatening situations has become a reality.
The Auckland City Police District is exempting Strategic Traffic Unit (STU) staff, among other front line staff, in the central business district from firearms training. There have been a number of high profile armed incidents in the central business district. With STU staff on the road for most of their shifts, they are the most likely staff to be issued with firearms for deployment on armed cordons.
The Police Association is strongly against any reduction in firearms training.
Police News understands the decision was taken to reduce “training overhead”. The Auckland move is in keeping with NZ Police’s move to introduce a three-tiered firearms training model, which will see “position specific” exemptions to firearms training. This means that officers working on Youth Aid and in other sections of Police will be designated as exempt from firearms training.
The Association is of the opinion that every police officer, who is in public in uniform, should receive some level of firearms training.
“Officers, as was the case in the Napier siege, are often called upon to respond to out-of-the ordinary and potentially lifethreatening incidents that happen in the blink of an eye, regardless of where they work. In Napier it was Youth Aid Officers who were amongst the first responders. It is imperative that Police make sure that all officers, regardless of where they work, are trained in all aspects of defensive tactics to ensure they are kept as safe as possible and are in a position to respond accordingly to protect the public and themselves,” Association President Greg O’Connor said.
“We are concerned that the push to save money will over-ride the safety of our members,” he added.
Police budget cuts are threatening to derail firearms training for many police officers, and the Police Association is very concerned that despite it raising its concerns about the dimunition of Staff Safety Tactics Training, on top of a reduction in defensive tactics training, a move to tiered firearms training is also taking place and will put officers at risk.
Police are adopting a two-pronged approach to managing budget constraints via a Tactical Options Deployment Review (TODR) from January 2010.
Police News understands the ammunition budget has been under severe pressure due to the increased cost of ammunition and a $100,000 Police budget shortfall. Under the TODR fewer officers will receive firearms training under a new tiered structure, which will see designated ‘first responders’ receive more training and ‘secondary’ responders get Bushmaster rifle training only. Those not designated as first or second responders will not receive firearms training at all.
Guidelines
Police guidelines under this model will mean that, in future, the Armed Offenders Squad or the Special Tactics Group will resolve armed incidents. Those designated by Police as ‘first responders’ will have access to a Glock pistol and Bushmaster rifle so that they can take action to prevent further casualties if necessary, while awaiting the arrival of AOS or STG staff. ‘Second responders’ will have access to a rifle but their job will be to cordon and contain.
Police News understands that the number of first and second responders will vary between District but that as a general rule it will be a 30/30 split respectively (with presumably 40% exempt) in metropolitan areas; 50/30 split (20% exempt) in provincial areas while all police in rural areas will be designated as first responders.
Since last month’s issue, Association phones and Email have been running hot with police officers wishing to give their opinion on the arming debate.
While officers were split on the issue of general arming, reflecting earlier surveys, there were two things that the majority consistently agreed on:
• Criminals were already armed to protect their assets and activities from other criminals and many had no compunction about using firearms against police if they felt those activities were under threat.
• That they favoured more ready access to firearms in order to respond to potentially life-threatening situations, which might claim the lives of police officers or members of the public. Many said that potentially life-threatening situations, where firearms were presented, unfolded very quickly and having ready access to firearms would give a level of security and discretion to officers, which is not part of current policy.
Consistent message
Police Association Greg O’Connor told Police News that the debate seemed to be engendering a consistent message from the frontline in terms of officers being able to get ready access to firearms if a situation suddenly turned septic and there was a potential for loss of life.
“What we are hearing is that we need better availability of firearms. What we have is things going the other way. We’ve had six police officers shot in the last year. Seven percent of officers have been threatened with a firearm in the last year and yet we have a refusal to discuss the matter of police access to firearms,” he said.
"We had the Prime Minister John Key saying after the shooting of Senior Constable Len Snee that this was not a cause for arming and the Commissioner of Police Howard Broad has said ‘not on my watch’: Well the question we would ask is this: ‘What would it take?’ It’s time to start discussing this issue.”
Discretion and better access
“We want to see a situation where individual officers have better access to firearms should they be in a situation where they may need them and we want to see a situation where those officers are trusted to make the decision to draw arms on their own cognisance if they deem that the risks to themselves, their fellow police officers or members of the public justify it.
“I think it is almost inevitable that at some time in the future police will be generally armed. I also think it will take a major event where members of the public are killed and police aren’t armed to bring about a seachange in current thinking,” he added. Mr O’Connor, in referring to an incident in which three people were shot in Palmerston North recently, said that shooting incidents were unfortunately becoming more common.
“That’s the sort of world that our police officers are operating in and it’s just not practical anymore for our officers to be going back to the police station to get armed when the criminals start shooting.”
Certain naivety
Mr O’Connor said that the argument that criminals would arm themselves if police officers were armed was “naïve”. “The criminals are already armed. They arm themselves to protect their valuable illegal trade in drugs, and other criminal activities. They arm to protect themselves against other criminals and unfortunately the police often end up as the ‘collateral damage’.”
He said there was “a sort of squeamishness” amongst Police bosses on the arming issue, which needed addressing. “It’s not going to go away as they might like,” he said. “Yes we do have to end up shooting people and hopefully the Taser will lessen those incidents, but it is the reality of the situation and the society that we live in. We are the coercive arm of the State and we are the only ones who can use lethal force and there are times when we just have to use it. That is the reality of the changing face of the society that we now live in.”
Different approaches
Last year, Police elected to reduce defensive tactics training hours and move to a tiered level of firearms training for officers, which has similarities to the gold, silver and bronze accreditation for drivers.
Police are understood to be working towards being more reliant on responding to firearms incidents by instituting a UK-type model where specialist groups would respond to each incident in Critical Response Vehicles (CRV).
