Police officers injured in the line of duty

Tasman police officers have received nerve damage, puncture wounds and lacerations while on duty in the past year.

Figures released under an Official Information Act request show 30 officers from the district were injured while making arrests from June 2016 to June 2017.

One of those arrests caused an officer to contract an infection.

Over the same period, three members of the Tasman public received an injury during an arrest. Superficial injuries to officers accounted for the largest injury-type with nine cases. Five officers suffered bruising and grazing, while three had muscle, tendon or nerve damage.

Tasman Police District Commander superintendent Mike Johnson described the role of a front-line officer as physically challenging and unpredictable.

The job was inherently risky, he said, with officers called to crisis points where individuals could be mentally unstable or under the influence of drugs.

‘‘Our officers have to deal with situations when members of the general public are going the other way,’’ he said.

‘‘We have obligation as an employer to keep our people safe. And because of the nature of the job, we take that seriously.’’

The Tasman police district covered 70,000 square kilometres of territory, encompassing the northern and most of the western portion of the South Island, with 22 police stations in the district.

There were 325 frontline staff in the district. They responded to multiple events every day and were instructed to report any inci- dent related to their health and safety, no matter how minor, Johnson said. ‘‘We spend a lot of time training our staff in and around safe practices for them and the people we arrest,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m very proud of the way officers in Tasman go about their business.’’

Nonetheless, Johnson said injuries to police staff and the public resulting from arrests were reviewed monthly and there was always room for improvement.

‘‘Anyone injured, whether making an arrest or being arrested, is too many,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m always looking to get that figure to zero.’’

Police recorded a total number of 4677 people taken into custody across the Tasman district in the last financial year.

Three of these people had afflictions directly related to their arrest, with one person grazing their head and another dislocating their shoulder.

Nationally, injuries to police officers were on a downward trend. In 2016, 1765 injuries were reported by police while on the job. This compared with 2056 police injuries in 2015, and 2225 in 2014.