Media Release

For Immediate Release
02 March 2015

Association calls for Police Officers to routinely have Tasers on their belts

“The time has come for Police Officers to be equipped with Tasers on their belt when they are attending calls for service, as the seemingly weekly serious attacks on Police Officers continue with today’s attack on a Police officer at the Foxton WINZ office,” Police Association President Greg O’Connor said today.

“It is no longer good enough for the Police hierarchy and politicians to say that, in general, assaults on Police are down when serious assaults continue to rise at this rate,” said Mr O’Connor.

“Once again a Police Officer attending a routine piece of policing has been seriously injured in a situation where he has been ill-equipped – not having either a Taser or a firearm on his person or in his vehicle.”

Mr O’Connor went on to say, “while there continues to be a public debate about the general arming of police, there is no doubt that sensible New Zealanders can understand the need for a Taser, when officers are called to confront violent offenders like the man in Foxton today.

“Beyond the leafy suburbs in New Zealand where policy is made and directed at, there exists a violent environment Police Officers operate in every day,” said Mr O’Connor.

“Police Officers must have the tools to defend themselves and the public in violent incidents that arise out of routine policing.”

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