Police criticised over handling of drowning at falls

Police have defended their actions and procedures after being criticised on social media following the drowning and recovery of a man at Whanga¯rei Falls.

Northland police Search and Rescue team officer in charge Senior Sergeant Cliff Metcalfe, who has 26 years’ experience with the squad, was also in charge of the incident

Metcalfe was at the falls soon after reports of a man struggling in the water about 4.30pm last Friday. Other police staff were at the falls only minutes after the alarm was raised and spoke with eye witnesses about the last location the man was seen.

But Kent Espinosa, an international student, could not be saved and the operation became one of recovery.

“We had ambulance and a fire rescue rope team there but it soon became obvious the man had failed to surface and had drowned,” Metcalfe said.

Officers searched the area but after failing to see the body in the water the decision was made to call in the specialist police dive squad, based in Wellington. Metcalfe said the squad were booked on the earliest available flight to Whanga¯rei which was Saturday morning.

Security guards were at the scene overnight and were instructed to contact police immediately if the man’s body surfaced. However, Metcalfe said in his many years with the squad bodies surfaced many days later.

Once the dive squad arrived they

It soon became obvious the man had failed to surface and had drowned.

Senior Sergeant Cliff Metcalfe

were briefed, a dive plan created and then they deployed into the water. It took divers about 30 minutes to find Espinosa’s body. The recovery was filmed and showed boulders and logs beneath the surface, Metcalfe said.

“These are standard operating procedures. Based on the facts it became a recovery operation. We can’t just use any divers for these operations. They have to be commercial divers authorised by the police or the police dive squad because of the risks.”

There was criticism from members of the public about the way the operation was handled. Comments appeared on the Northland Police Facebook page after a post by police at 6.38pm stating the search had been suspended for the night.

Rowena Marie posted: “Man looked distressed before 4.50pm and stopped the search at 6.30pm? WOW! Your fault if he’s dead by morning. They barely looked for 2 hours, I have respect for everyone involved and the police but no respect for how they handled the search for the man.”

Others commented: “What were they meant to do? If he’d been under the water for nearly 2 hours chances are he’s already passed away.”