Police will reflect on critical situations, Commissoner says

Newly-appointed Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told Saturday Morning police will take opportunities to be better and learn from the situations they are involved in.

This follows a statement made by Chambers earlier this week saying he would support the routine arming of police.

"I would like to live in a country, New Zealand, where we don't have to routinely arm police officers... but what I'm saying is that there may come a time where we need to have a think about that," he said.

An RNZ investigation from two years ago found that New Zealand police kill at 11 times the rate of Police in England and Wales.

As of 2022 New Zealand police had killed 39 people since 1990, where police in England and Wales had fatally shot 77 people over that time - twice as many but with 10 times the population.

The situation was complex, Chambers said.

"We will always focus on the safety of the community as an absolute priority... and of our own staff as well.

"We will continue to look at every situation that we deal with which is critical, where hard decisions are made, to see where opportunities to be better are.

"It is a tough job and we will always continue to work hard to do our best for communities across New Zealand," he said.

Concerns have been raised that the routine arming of police would harm Māori the most.

Spokesperson for People Against Prisons Aotearoa, University of Auckland Criminology lecturer Dr Emmy Rākete said the use of tasers by police provided a chilling insight into what could happen if officers entered every situation with a gun.

"If police officers have access to firearms on their hips they will use them and people will die. Overwhelmingly, those people who die will be young Māori men."

The recent Understanding Police Delivery report showed discrimination against Māori was still a major concern in almost every area of police's community engagement.

It showed that Māori were 11 percent more likely to be prosecuted than New Zealand europeans.

Chambers said although he had not read the reports yet, he would take the time to do so.

"I'm sure there are some suggestions in there that will be helpful to us.

"What I would like in the New Zealand police is to ensure that... when we reflect on the situations we get involved in across all communities, we aren't always going to get it right and that's the nature of policing. Where there are opportunities to reflect and perhaps consider a different approach next time and be better we will take those, we will learn from it," he said.

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