Teen, 74-year-old on end of Tasers
The Taser knows little age barrier with police figures showing a 15 and 74-year-old were stungunned in a single year.
The report, New Zealand Police Tactical Options Research, shows that police missed 40 per cent of the time when they used firearms.
There were more than 3.5 million reported incidences with 4500 that used ‘‘tactical options’’ during the year.
Taser use was slightly down on the past two years with 1189 stun-gun events but nine children aged 10 to 13 were ‘‘shown’’ a Taser. The youngest to have it deployed was a 15-year-old, the figures show. The oldest was 74.
Police have been asked for details about the incidents.
Officers shot firearms on 10 occasions: four missed their target, three caused non-fatal injuries and three were fatal.
The top three forceful methods were empty-hand tactics which were used 39 per cent of the time, mostly in Counties Manukau, with 266 incidences.
Handcuffs and restraints were used in 34 per cent of cases with Counties Manukau raking up 235 incidences. Pepper spray was used 32 per cent of the time and most popular in Bay of Plenty.
The Taser came in fourth at 26 per cent but of that figure, it was fired 16 per cent of the time. Police showed the weapon in 1003 of cases.
The Taser was used the most in Bay of Plenty, which recorded 169 incidences – 50 of which were stuns and a discharge of probes.
Waitemata¯, Wellington and Auckland City came in equal second with 46 shocks each but Waitemata¯ recorded the most injuries as a result of Taser use, six of which were serious, two moderate and one minor.
The weapon was least used in Tasman, which had just one discharge case recorded.
The report said Ma¯ ori were at the receiving end of the Taser the most in 2017, with 99 discharges. Europeans were second in line with 52, followed by Pacific people in 26 cases, five of Asian descent, Middle Eastern, Latin American or African were recorded three times and one ethnicity was unknown.
Police officers were injured in 83 Taser cases, most often in Canterbury, closely followed by Auckland City and Bay of Plenty.
Staff were injured at 12 per cent of events. The public was injured in 18 per cent of cases where force was used.
Police received 367 complaints over use of force in 2017. The most were made in Waikato and Wellington, both with 50 complaints.
Police said a fatalities and shooting injury form was introduced for the 2018 tactical options research (TOR) report to ‘‘improve the comprehensiveness and real-time reporting of data’’.
They said it would improve police firearms fatality and injury records.
The Taser was used the most in Bay of Plenty.