New Zealand Implements Armed Patrols

A six-month trial for armed patrols began on October 28 in New Zealand. (Wikimedia Commons)

New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush announced on Friday, October 18 that Armed Response Teams (ARTs) will start to regularly patrol areas within Waikato, Canterbury, and Auckland, the nation’s largest city. According to the Department of Police, these teams will be on a six-month trial starting October 28 and will act as “armed, equipped, [and] mobile” support for front-line police officers.

New Zealand, along with the United Kingdom and Norway, still prohibits regular police officers from carrying firearms while on duty, according to Reuters. Handcuffs, rifles, and tasers must be kept in cars and used with strict permission from a supervisor.

However, the Christchurch mosque attack in March instigated a series of gun reforms, among which included the mobilization of armed policemen, notes CNA. The gun reforms also include the passing of laws banning military-style semi-automatics, tighter gun ownership laws, and a buyback scheme of semi-automatic weapons in the nation, PBS reports. The government has collected more than 29,000 guns since the reforms went into effect.

According to AP, Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said that the laws enjoyed quick acceptance because most New Zealanders disagree with the American view of gun ownership as a constitutional right rather than a privilege.

An estimated 1.5 million guns are currently circulating in New Zealand, and citizens must have a license in order to own a gun. Police Minister Stuart Nash commented, “Police turn up to... callouts with no knowledge of what they are walking into. Every month, police turn up to 200 incidents where a firearm is involved.”

For people like Nash, the police have a responsibility to ensure security in communities, and part of that means the “right tools, skills and knowledge” for any situation, including ones that involve firearms.

Insider reports that the two policemen who arrested Brenton Tarrant, the 29 year-old Australian suspect in the Christchurch shooting, were fully armed and were returning from a training session on how to handle armed criminals.

Under New Zealand’s previous system, a subsection of the police called Armed Offenders Squads (AOS) was the primary means of response to armed conflicts. However, according to the New Zealand Police website, these squads are primarily composed of volunteers within the police force and do not go on regular patrols. The new ARTs will be a specialized group of AOS who will patrol New Zealand’s urban areas seven days a week.

The implementation of a specifically armed force within the police force also drew criticism. According to the Radio New Zealand (RZN), many members of New Zealand’s indigenous Māori community, who face disproportionately high rates of incarceration and police pursuits, worry about the new policy of armed police patrols. Lawyer Moana Jackson said that making firearms more accessible to police will put Māori at a higher risk of getting shot than any other group and exacerbate current tensions, given Māori’s historically conflicted relationship with the police.