A recent NielsenIQ-run biennial Police Association Member Survey of close to 6,000 constabulary members has revealed that 73 percent of them now believe they should be generally armed.
That decision however is not in their hands.
Commissioner Andrew Coster concedes the escalation in gun-related incidents is “worrying” and “unnerving”, but he believes “the style of policing that is right for New Zealand is a generally unarmed service, and it would be a very high threshold for me to move away from that position”.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Police Minister Poto Williams are on record as strongly opposing general arming. […]
In a November 2019 tweet to rapper Tom Scott, the PM said of general arming: “Won’t happen while I’m in this job. That we do get a say in.”
However, according to section 16 of the Policing Act 2008, the “say” is the commissioner’s alone.
In the case of Police Minister Poto Williams, she is on record as seeing her role as representing not the welfare of the police but instead Maori and Pasifika communities who she says do not want the police to be armed.
Some may find it ironic that armed police are required to protect Jacinda Ardern but she is not in favour of allowing the police to protect themselves.
What the majority of the public does not understand is that the decision on whether or not the police should be armed does not sit with Jacinda Ardern. The bottom line is that it is not the Prime Minister’s or the Police Minister’s decision to make. The buck stops with the Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.
The increased support for general arming from constabulary members is no doubt linked to the reality of frontline policing in 2021.
In 2021, 13 per cent of constabulary (one in eight) said they had been threatened with a firearm at least once in the past 12 months (stable with 2019 figures). GDB frontline staff were significantly more likely to have been threatened with a firearm (25%).
Two in five (41%) constabulary have been threatened with another weapon, an increase from 2019 (37%).
There has been an increase in the proportion of constabulary attacked by an offender in the past 12 months (38% compared with 35% in 2019), the proportion injured has also increased (17% compared with 15% in 2019).
Nearly one in four (23%) constabulary have been involved in an incident in the past year that they believe would have been better resolved if they were carrying a firearm (compared with 20% in 2019).
It cannot be denied that policing has become increasingly dangerous.
Over 10 months last year, in response to violence and firearm threats, frontline police were required at least once a week to carry firearms as part of “temporary arming orders” issued by districts, ranging from hours to days.
policeassn.org.nz/news/we-need-general-arming
Airport police already routinely carry sidearms in public and have been doing so for many years.
“Everyone accepts a move to general arming would be significant – though not necessarily the fundamental shift in police/community relations that some fear – but police officers have the right to feel safe at work,”
Police Association president Chris Cahill
In the meantime, given that both the PM and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster are against arming the police, a compromise has been strongly suggested by the Police Association.
consider the establishment of specialist teams “available at times of most risk in the most risky communities to support frontline officers dealing with the ever-present threat from armed offenders”.
policeassn.org.nz/news/we-need-general-arming
New Zealand is currently one of only 19 countries worldwide that has an unarmed police force. Is New Zealand’s long tradition of “policing by consent” still a reasonable response to the reality of policing in 2021 or has the number of illegal firearms out there in the community and the willingness of criminals to use them changed the environment irrevocably?