Armed cops in traffic stops
Critics say the armed response team undertaking vehicle stops is a worrying sign of increased police militarisation, writes Tom Kitchin.
A new armed police team set up to tackle violent offenders attended more vehicle stops than any other type of job in its first month on the streets.
Armed response teams (ARTs) were introduced to much fanfare in October as a rapid response unit to target increasingly aggressive armed criminals.
But data released to the Sunday-Star Times under the Official Information Act shows about one in four callouts were for routine vehicle stops.
The teams, staffed by three armed offenders squad members in a navy Holden SUV, are on trial in Counties-Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury for six months from October 2019 to April 2020.
The uniformed officers keep glock pistols in a holster and have access to bushmaster rifles and armed offender squad kits in their vehicles.
Police stop vehicles for numerous reasons – for example following a car after a burglary, catching a person who has a warrant or simply if there were concerns with a vehicle.
The ARTs attended 524 vehicle stops in the Waikato, 82 in Canterbury and 41 in CountiesManukau and surrounding districts. In all three districts, vehicle stops were the top callout.
Overall, Waikato had the most callouts with 1453, followed by Canterbury with 559, and a further 331 callouts in CountiesManukau and the wider Auckland area.
Police national manager for response and operations Superintendent Andrew Sissons said although the ARTs were prioritised to attend incidents where a ‘‘significant risk’’ was posed, they also attended lower priority incidents where ‘‘available and appropriate to do so’’.
Police operations support commander Inspector Freda Grace, based at the Wellington’s national police headquarters, said officers responded to events where the need arose, regardless of whether they were part of the armed response unit or not.
‘‘I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t expect them to drive past that event would you?’’ she said.
‘‘If (the ARTs) are there, then people should take absolute confidence that they have got the right people there doing their job if it is something that is armed. I don’t think that anyone should be alarmed because of a style of vehicle.’’
Mongrel Mob member Jason Harder, from Hamilton, said he was pulled over by an armed response car in January for not wearing a seatbelt.
‘‘We see the ART in the lane next to us going the other way.
‘‘He looks at me, recognises me and then jumps in, speeds around, comes back up and then pulls up and blocks us off at the side of the road,’’ Harder said.
‘‘I was scared at first because I thought ‘I’m a gang member – is he going to see if weapons are in the vehicle, is he going to shoot me?’
‘‘He says ‘I’ve dealt with you many times, you weren’t wearing a seatbelt’.
‘‘I said ‘you spun around this vehicle to get me a seatbelt [fine] when I thought this was a special vehicle with special tasks’.
‘‘They’re designed to deployed at high-risk situations. That wasn’t a high risk situation, that’s picking on somebody.’’ Former police officer and private investigator Tim McKinnell said he was concerned about the use of a heavily armed police unit for routine stops.
‘‘One of the fears of the introduction of this militarisation of routine policing is that they were going to be used quite broadly in communities and that certainly seems to be the case in Waikato.
‘‘This is the very problem with the deployment of these roving armed teams, is that once they exist and once you’re paying for them, you want to use them whether they’re necessary or not... I don’t think that’s what communities want.’’
After the trial finishes in April, police will evaluate the success of the ARTs then decide if they should be introduced permanently.
‘‘They’re designed to deployed at high-risk situations. That wasn’t a high risk situation, that’s picking on somebody.’’ Jason Harder