Respect is best armour for police
While officers increasingly carry guns, Tasers and batons, the most powerful weapon they can employ is the authority they carry with them as a member of the New Zealand Police.
The last police officer to be murdered on duty was Senior Constable Leonard Snee, shot to death by Jan Molenaar in the Napier siege of 2009. It is unlikely the new stabproof and bulletproof vests to be issued to all police officers over the next 3 12 ⁄ years would have saved his life, but the $20 million on the upgraded armour is money well spent.
Police do a difficult and utterly unpredictable job that every day puts them in situations in which they could be harmed. They deserve as much personal protection as can be offered them.
The upgraded vests come as violent crime is dropping overall, but the severity of attacks against police is increasing. Since 1890, 29 police officers have been murdered in the line of duty. Of those, 22 were shot to death. Five of those shooting deaths have occurred since 1990, the last being Snee.
Over the same period, three police officers have been bashed to death, something the vests would still not prevent. No officer has yet died from being stabbed.
Our murder rate is also dropping. Though our growing population means the actual numbers of murdered people may be increasing each year, the murder rate is less than half of what it was in the 1970s and 1980s.
Last year, police reported the country’s murder rate had hit a 40-year low, at seven for every million people. Each one of those murders was a horrifying tragedy for the victim, their family and friends, and the dropping murder rate is of no consolation to them.
Yet it is an indication that something is going right and that, as a nation, we can afford to feel a little less anxious about where our society is heading, at least in terms of crime.
Police know they are part of this decrease, and their hard work in making New Zealand safer must be acknowledged.
Yet despite this drop in crime, their job is not getting any easier. Between 2015 and 2018 there were 6000 assaults on police. That sounds high, but again attacks are down 10 per cent compared with 1998. But serious assaults against police have increased by 244 per cent.
The trend is worrying because, as Police Association president Chris Cahill has said, it shows a lack of respect for police.
While officers increasingly carry guns, Tasers and batons, the most powerful weapon they can employ is the authority they carry with them as a member of the New Zealand Police.
So while it is essential the police have the best protection we can give them, it must be recognised that investing heavily in programmes to maintain and enhance the respect and belief the community has in their authority is vital.
How they do that most effectively is the milliondollar question. Whether it is increasing community outreach programmes, school visits, putting more officers on foot patrols or even a greater social media presence – it will be money well spent. And that is so even if the link between that money and a safer work experience is not as easy to calculate as it is between vests and bullets stopped.
There’s no doubt personal armour will save lives. Knowing the people who wear it are just like the rest of us will always save more.