Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
License needed for work use Register

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | News Video | Crime | Employers | Housing | Immigration | Legal | Local Govt. | Maori | Welfare | Unions | Youth | Search

 

Punching Of Woman In Auckland Unreasonable

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer in Auckland used unreasonable force in punching a woman to the head, after she bit his arm.

On 8 April 2022, the officer arrested the woman for breach of bail conditions. She was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car. The woman tried to exit the patrol car and the officer placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her. She then bit his left forearm. The officer punched the woman to the left side of her face. The woman suffered a cut above her left eye and bruising to the surrounding tissues.

The officer acknowledged that he had an obligation to use the least amount of force necessary to stop the woman from biting him. In our view, he could have used an open palm strike, which is a tactic officers are trained in, to stop the assault, rather than punching the woman with a closed fist, which officers are not taught as part of their Police training.

We also found that the woman was not afforded appropriate medical care while she was in Police custody. Because she suffered a head injury, policy required custody staff to call a doctor to examine the woman, which they did not do.

Finally, the Authority has concluded that the woman’s injuries were not appropriately recorded or photographed.

We recommended that Police develop guidelines for appropriate staff to photograph injuries caused to both officers and people, as a result of Police actions taken.

The Authority Chair, Judge Kenneth Johnston KC, said: “In this case, the test for the reasonableness of the force used was finely balanced; we applied our minds to the tactics officers are taught and found that the force the officer used, was ultimately unreasonable because he could have used the less violent option of an open palm strike to stop the assault.”

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2308/30AUGUST2023IPCAPUBLICREPORTPoliceofficerAucklandpunchingwomanselfdefence.pdf

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

Gordon Campbell: On The Government's Assault On Maori

This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Audrey Young in the NZ Herald has compiled a useful list of the many ways Christopher Luxon plans to roll back the progress made in race relations over the past forty years. He has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. More


 
 
ACT: Call To Abolish Human Rights Commission

“The Human Rights Commission’s appointment of a second Chief Executive is just the latest example of a taxpayer-funded bureaucracy serving itself at the expense of delivery for New Zealanders,” says ACT MP Todd Stephenson. More


Public Housing Futures: Christmas Comes Early For Landlords

New CTU analysis of the National & ACT coalition agreement has shown the cost of returning interest deductibility to landlords is an extra $900M on top of National’s original proposal. This is because it is going to be implemented earlier and faster, including retrospective rebates from April 2023. More

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.