Police being shot at more often, stats show

WELLINGTON: Police were assaulted by someone wielding a firearm 21 times in 2021, the most ever in a single year.

Despite the increased number of shootings aimed at police, the number of offenders shot by police remained steady.

Data obtained under the Official Information Act shows police fired upon seven people in 2021, shooting six and missing one.

Those figures are much the same as previous years, but come as offenders show increased willingness to shoot at police.

Between 2015 and 2020, police officers were shot at roughly once a month — between 11 and 13 times a year.

That increased to 21 in 2021, with four officers shot and injured. Three of those officers were shot at an incident in Glen Eden in November last year, in which the offender was then shot dead by police.

Police Association president Chris Cahill said the numbers fit with what he was hearing from the frontlines.

‘‘Unfortunately, certainly the increase in the risk of firearms to officers has been pretty clear,’’ he said.

‘‘I think the public has seen that on almost a daily basis.

‘‘In saying that, police are still maintaining a very professional approach to the response of firearms, and that’s why you’re seeing no increase in the use of firearms by police, which is the last resort.’’

Mr Cahill said while police were not comfortable with the heightened risk firearms were posing, they were now better equipped for the realities of frontline policing, thanks to the frontline safety improvement programme which began in 2021.

‘‘Police identified that the heightened risk of firearms necessitated a different response, and so they’ve changed the tactical response model.

‘‘They’ve also changed the training for frontline officers, and that is around containing, it’s around having a plan before you go into an event that may have or does have a firearms offender.

‘‘That’s clearly paying off with police not having to use firearms as often. We’re pleased about that because noone wants police to have to shoot someone.’’

The figures do suggest that under the new tactical response model officers are arming themselves more frequently, even if they are not using the firearms.

In 2017, police presented a firearm at an offender 247 times — just over 20 per month on average — shooting at eight people.

In the six months to June 30 this year, there were 391 presentations of firearms by police — 65 presentations per month on average — with four people being shot at. — RNZ