Armed police raid ‘flawed’
The actions of armed police involved in a siege at Kawerau were ‘‘highly flawed’’, the Independent Police Conduct Authority says.
Three armed police officers were shot and wounded by Rhys Warren as they conducted a search of his home near Kawerau on March 9, 2016.
A fourth officer was shot and wounded in the subsequent siege.
The IPCA report said: ‘‘AOS officers should never have entered Warren’s family house’’, and that there was poor general understanding among officers at all levels about how control and command should have operated during different phases of the police response.
‘‘The lack of proper oversight was a strong contributing factor to the flawed tactical decisions,’’ authority chair Judge Colin Doherty said.
The officers made a lawful decision to return fire at Warren but should not have put themselves at risk by entering the home, Doherty said. ‘‘They fired to defend themselves and their fellow officers from an imminent threat of death and in order to manage the safe evacuation of wounded officers. ‘‘Better decision making is likely to have prevented these officers from having to make the decision to use their firearms in the first place.’’ The authority report said the operation was not planned or executed with care. Officers failed to notify communications prior to the search and did not conduct a risk assessment.
Nor were police dogs used in the search of Warren’s home.
The broken glass resulting from the raid meant police dogs could not be deployed afterwards.
The IPCA concluded with a call for an ‘‘urgent review’’ due to significant issues with the control and command of this incident
Assistant Commissioner Bill Searle said police accepted the findings and had made operational changes as a result.
A big change is having all dogs equipped with leather boots and trials are being conducted for dogs to carry cameras.
‘‘If the officers had that, they could have seen someone was in the house and potentially that they were armed and changed their decision making at the time,’’ he said.
‘‘Had he been confronted by a dog, he would have reacted differently,’’ Searle said.
‘‘I’m not sure what he would have done but it would have changed the whole dynamic.’’
Warren has been sentenced to preventive detention for two counts of attempted murder, three counts of using a firearm against a law enforcement officer and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
All four wounded officers have returned to active duty.