Arms (and feet) given priority by Police Commissioner
In keeping with his wish to see greater accessibility to firearms for frontline staff, Police Commissioner Peter Marshall has allocated $6 million to make sure every frontline patrol car has access to semi-automatic rifles and pistols in special lockboxes in the boot.
Police will ramp up firearms training as a result of the allocation of the additional guns.
Most patrol cars do not carry firearms but they are available if a senior officer assesses that the situation is likely to endanger officers and/or the public.
Commissioner Marshall has said he would sooner see the firearms readily available to officers in their cars rather than having the weapons back at the station.
Safety footwear
Commissioner Marshall has also asked for an assessment on the cost of safety footwear for officers.
Many officers have complained that their footwear is not up to adequate safety standards and the Association has been engaged with Police on discussions around the problem for some time.
Mr Marshall said that he had realised it was an issue for staff when he had been out in the districts recently.
He said he was “very sympathetic” to the need for frontline staff to have comfortable footwear and was cognisant that it was a health and safety issue.
He had accordingly asked for urgent work to be done on the cost to NZ Police of providing safety footwear to operational frontline staff.
At present police officers buy their own footwear, although some specialist groups have theirs paid for by the department.
