Police officers deserve elevated protection
On a recent walk-through of the new Christchurch Central Police Station, I asked Superintendent John Price what keeps him awake at night? What does he worry about the most? Without hesitation, the Canterbury Police District Commander unloaded about his grave fears and growing anxiety for the safety of his officers. His typically jovial demeanour was suddenly extinguished. He visibly turned ashenfaced, wracked with worry for the welfare of his staff.
The events in Christchurch in the past week have brought that state of anxiety over police and public safety into sharp focus.
Price’s directive to his front-line staff to temporarily arm up has been met with enormous news attention, even though district commanders exercise this discretionary authority across the country several times a year.
Cue the liberal academic lobby and assorted hand-wringers who have worked themselves into a lather about trigger-happy cops. Even opportunist local body politicians, with an eye on re-election, sewed headlines with inflammatory anti-cop rhetoric.
Auckland councillor Efeso Collins thundered on Twitter, that ‘‘if you’re brown and male you’ll soon enough be shot at by police who are ‘protecting our communities’.’’ Collins has sought to defend his language on the basis that many young, brown men are in our prisons simply because of ‘‘implicit and conscious bias’’. I note that the two suspects allegedly involved in the Christchurch police shoot-out are both brown. How can ‘‘implicit and conscious bias’’ possibly explain away their allegedly egregious offending?
The police have made enormous strides in recent years to celebrate cultural diversity and eliminate past prejudices.
Otago University’s Professor Kevin Clements, the director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Otago University, has also decried the arming of police, arguing it encourages criminals to tool up as well. The trouble with that argument is it’s 10 years out of date. Much of the criminal fraternity is already tooled up.
Officers are finding firearms in the hands of criminals every day, during routine police stops, property and personal searches. Meanwhile, the incidence of offenders confronting cops with guns has become a weekly affair.
The Police Association has counted 60 such incidents since June. Association president Chris Cahill tells me that ‘‘the proliferation of firearms amongst criminals is first to protect themselves from other criminals/gangs. It is police and the public who are next at risk.’’
What about the quality and regularity of police firearms training? Cahill says their last members survey indicated ‘‘the majority of officers are satisfied with the quality of firearms training, but most would like more training. Level 1 responders get training every six months.’’
The Police Association’s last survey also indicated the highest recorded level of support for general arming, with 66 per cent of officers in favour. Among general duties frontliners, that climbed to 73 per cent.
Possibly the greatest urban legend is that a routinely armed police force would make them less approachable, turning us into a nation of nervous Nigels. Kiwis travel widely, we’re conditioned to seeing armed police, whether in Launceston or London.
If you’re strolling down George St in Sydney when a beat cop passes by with a gun on his hip, do you find yourself cowering in a corner, seeking refuge? Of course not. It is indeed noteworthy that historically Australian officers are shot at less and shoot fewer offenders per head of population than those in New Zealand. Cahill believes this is because ‘‘people are conditioned to know that if officers have firearms they will shoot back when shot at’’.
I have no problem with our frontline police being routinely armed. Politically incorrect as it may be, it instils a healthy dose of ‘‘we’re not to be messed with’’. It reasserts their sense of authority.
Accompanying general arming should be the deployment of body cameras, to shine a light on proceedings when officers are faced with accusations of unwarranted use of force.
The growing incidence of violent attacks on officers, let alone the insidious upswing of fleeing drivers, which bedevils Christchurch, are deplorable pointers of how the cops are perceived as fair game.
I believe the general arming of the police will be a reality within 10 years. They deserve our support and elevated protection.
Politically incorrect as it may be, it instils a healthy dose of ‘we’re not to be messed with’.