Dear Mr Minto,
On 19 August 2015 the Authority received a complaint from you relating to a protest carried out on 15 August 2015 where Police attended. In order to assess the matter appropriately and determine the manner in which to deal with your complaint, the Authority made further enquiries with the Police to seek additional information.
Police National Headquarters has now provided the Authority with a report on the matter.
Following an independent analysis of both the information provided by you and the report provided by Police, the Authority now advises you of its view, based on all of the material before it.
Your complaint
Your complaint relates to the carriage of Tasers by Police at the protest at Parliament on 15 August 2015. You say that:
- Police at the protest were wearing Tasers;
- This is contrary to the Police Standard Operating Procedures; and
- This is particularly disappointing given the complaint you made two years ago regarding asimilar incident.
Police Report
TDB Recommends NewzEngine.comFrom 31 July 2015 the practice concerning Tasers changed. All level one responders were able to routinely carry Tasers. Police policy regarding the carriage of Tasers at public order events has not changed. The policy remains that officers rostered to attend public order events do not wear Tasers. Police have confirmed that the officers rostered to attend the protest were not wearing Tasers.
When matters escalated at Parliament, backup Police officers were called. Many of these officers would have been wearing Tasers in accordance with the new general practice. The Sergeant managing the Police presence at Parliament specifically advised Police officers attending as backup that Tasers should not be worn at the protest.
The escalation in matters at Parliament included protesters climbing over railings onto the Parliament forecourt, some of whom moved up the Parliament steps. Police and security were concerned that some of the protesters would attempt to gain entry to the Parliament building.
The first group of additional officers arriving on the scene did not believe that they had time to safely remove and store their Tasers. This was due to the emergency situation which had arisen. Therefore their Tasers were worn when they provided reinforcement at the protest. This was the only group of officers assisting who wore Tasers, as the other groups were able to safely store their Tasers before arriving at the Protest.
No Tasers were drawn, and those officers carrying Tasers were placed behind security guards to minimise any possibility of physical interaction with members of the pubic. There was no physical contact between Police and the public, and only limited verbal communication.
The Police conclude their report by stating that those officers rostered to attend the protest did not wear Tasers, in accordance with Police policy. There was no intention for any Police attending the protest to wear Tasers; however due to the urgent circumstances which arose, a small number of backup Police officers were carrying Tasers.
The Authority’s Review
The Authority has reviewed the information provided by you and the Police. The Authority accepts that Police officers rostered to attend the protest were not carrying Tasers. This is in compliance with Police Policy.
The Authority acknowledges that additional Police were called to assist at the protest, and some of these officers were carrying Tasers. Having considered the circumstances as they were, the Authority accepts that the small number of Police carrying Tasers did so due to the emergency circumstances which arose. The Authority notes the practical steps taken by Police to limit the possibility of contact between those Police officers carrying Tasers and the public.
The Authority has seen no evidence of misconduct or negligence on the part of Police. Accordingly, the Authority has decided, pursuant to section 18(2) of the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act 1988, to take no further action on your complaint.
The “Authority” omitted to mention the threat to legitimate protesters from taser carrying police officers was always present nevertheless!
Another whitewash from a government agency!
Key must be getting nervous ,he knows hes been acting like hes invincible,but obviously hes very wary of public opinion,if he signs the tpp or tirsa hecan expect more of the same.he cant hide all the time behind police.
Well done John for showing the tasers were seen.
words fail me
IPCA report translation: yeah the blue bellies had tasers on them, and you riff raff are lucky they did not zap you filthy trouble makers where it hurts
all I can say is activist groups need to take some practical steps asap to deal with this new reality of the NZ Police being quite ready to use tasers in a political setting, the way they already do elsewhere–as a compliance and punishment devices
So… it was not possible for police to take two minutes to open the boots of their cars; deposit their tasers; lock the boots; then move to Parliament?
Really?
When all that happened was a bunch of noisy kids sitting on the bottom steps of Parliament?!
I don’t know which was worse, the police action to carry tasers to a public event or the IPCA decision which is far from convincing.
The IPCA has allowed a bad precedent to be set.
Because now the police can sit “non-rostered” police outside the gates armed with tasers, a police officer at the scene can say “I need urgent help” and all the taser armed police can then take part. The urgent help need only be something trivial or cooked up.
lf it was likely that extra police were going to be needed than these first-level back-up police officers should have dis-armed themselves just in case.
They should have erred towards keeping themselves within the rules rather than erred towards breaking them.
Precisely, Pledger.
A point seemingly lost on the IPCA.
Ummm… did you not see the comment about why the additional Police were called? If the Protestors had not started acting in the manner they did then there would have been no need to call for the additional reinforcements who understandably felt like they needed to get there as soon as possible.
Ummm… you can find as many excuses as you like,Gosman,but it doesn’t justify the cops breaking their own rules by taking weapons to a peacefulprotest.
By the way, were you there? Somehow,I don’t think you were.
So you haven’t got a goddamn clue what you’re talking about, do you?
Your support for The State is noted though. BB will be pleased.
“The first group of additional officers arriving on the scene did not believe that they had time to safely remove and store their Tasers. This was due to the emergency situation which had arisen. Therefore their Tasers were worn when they provided reinforcement at the protest. This was the only group of officers assisting who wore Tasers, as the other groups were able to safely store their Tasers before arriving at the Protest.”
What are the time stamps on those photos, and what time did those officers arrive?
The IPCA is a [Liberty bell, please rephrase without the heavy abuse and ad hominem at Greg O’Connor. – ScarletMod]
for wanting to heavily arm police (no mentioning that they have available to them in the trunks and under the seats of their vehicles) without a counter balance like body cameras for higher accountability instead of just giving weapons to people to trust them with!!!
message not getting through for awhile now
Hah, just looks like the kind of response I and others are used to from our equally useless Ombudsmen. This is just ridiculous cop out talk by the cops. They will always find an “excuse” for whatever they do.
It is not even worth complaining these days, as our so-called “watch dogs” are generally a sick joke, they have expert lawyers always finding every loophole in the law to let the government and their agencies off the hook.
It is so with the Ombudsmen, the HDC, the Privacy Commissioner and also with the Police Complaints Authority.
The IPCA is actually routinely finding fault with Police.
You must live under a blanket. A wet one.
They have on some occasion found failure or fault in police conduct, but they have hardly any power to do anything about what the police do. That is a “wet bus-ticket slap on the wrist” approach, same as the Officers of Parliament usually offer.
All this is in my eyes not good enough, and deserves criticism.
The Police carried Taser’s. So what? The protestors obeyed the law, the Tasers stayed in their holsters. There is no story here, just a space filler.
Talking of space fillers… 🙂
Missing the point much,Amos?? The cops broke their own rules. A point you’d understand if you stoppped being such a pathetic cheerleader for the government and it’s security apparatus.
Anyway,just what do you think half a dozen tasers would’ve accomplished against 5000 protestors?? Except for rarking up everyone,not a hell of a lot, eh? But I guess you didn’t think of that,did you?
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