Media Release
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, 23 October 2014

Police Association Annual Conference Called Unanimously on the Commissioner to Arm Police Full Time

In the wake of a series of recent armed offender incidents, delegates to the Police Association Annual Conference today called unanimously on the Commissioner to arm Police full time.

"The Police Association Conference in 2010 called for the general arming of Police. Since then, firearms have been placed in frontline police vehicles, and that has certainly been an improvement.

"However, there has been no such improvement in the number of armed offender incidents. As recent cases in Waitakere and Otara have shown, firearms locked in vehicles are still too far away to provide police and public the protection they need", Police Association President Greg O'Connor said today.

"On TVNZ this morning, the new minister gave his view, that Police do not need to be armed, while standing on the forecourt of parliament. The dark irony was that the interview followed immediately after breaking news of a gunman running amok in the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. Police in that country are armed and were able to respond immediately. That would not be the case here."

"Sadly, we have reached the point where crime in New Zealand, as well as international trends to which are not immune, make arming police not only inevitable, but necessary," Mr O'Connor said.

POLICE ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE MOTION:

"Conference reiterates its call for all sworn police officers to be armed full time, and calls on the Commissioner to immediately begin the transition process to a fully armed constabulary."

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