Cases like Christchurch citizen’s arrest undermine trust in police - association: Survey shows drop

The public’s trust in police has dipped, according to their own survey released today, and the union boss representing officers says stories of police failing to attend callouts only make it worse.

A Christchurch business owner and tradies who performed a citizen’s arrest were left believing “police can’t look after us” when they said they couldn’t attend the incident and the group, who were pinning the alleged thief down, should let him go.

Christchurch Area Commander Superintendant Lane Todd told the Herald there were more important callouts officers had to attend at the time, and he did appreciate this was “not ideal”.

New Zealand Police Association president Chris Cahill said he accepted that front-line officers may have been tied up, “but I would have thought there would have been someone else available to attend”.

Mike Creedy (left) tackled an alleged thief and phoned police - only to be told to let the offender go on. Photo / Supplied

“In a city the size of Christchurch... at three o’clock on a [Monday]... It’s a surprise to me there wouldn’t be some officers available.”

Cahill said officers themselves were disappointed in the response: “They believe it’s undermining the credibility when police fail to attend incidents like this.

“The public is hearing more and more that police aren’t there when they’re called for help and it has an effect of undermining trust and confidence,” he said.

“The result is that people will not be asking for help because they don’t think the police will come.”

Police released the results from their public perceptions survey, the “police module”, which revealed 69 per cent of respondents had trust and confidence in the police.

Last year’s survey showed 74 per cent of respondents were confident in the police.

Police called the 69 per cent figure “very high, but lower than in previous years.”

Responding to the results, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said, “We know that without broad public support, our job of keeping communities safe is much harder.”

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster declining confidence in police was due in part to reduced confidence in government institutions. Photo / Michael Craig

Coster blamed the decline in trust on three main trends; the end of the country’s response to Covid-19, dropping confidence in government institutions and “changes” in trends of ram-raids and inter-gang violence.

“Seen alongside the fairly stable crime rates reported by [the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey], these differences indicate that public perceptions have been driving this decline rather than the reality of people’s direct experience of Police,” he said.

“These surveys tell us that we also need to make sure we continue to demonstrate to the public the results of our efforts and our successes in identifying and addressing emerging crime trends such as gang violence and ram raids.”

Cahill said the public had been telling the Police Association they wanted to see police deal with retail crime and visible offending.

He said officers were often preoccupied with dealing with mental health callouts, “the vast majority of those aren’t criminal offences and should be dealt with by health professionals.

“If that was better managed, that would free up police staff to be able to attend these sorts of incidents. Equally, we know a large number of family harm incidents don’t involve criminal offending either.”

New Zealand Police Association president Chris Cahill said the public wanted to see police respond to more crime. Photo / Kevin Stent

The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce called for improved police resources following Monday’s incident and said citizens taking action against offending could increase without a bolstered force.

Chamber chief executive, Leeann Watson said there was public empathy for police - acknowledging they do what they can with the resources they have available to them.

Watson was concerned about how a citizen’s arrest would have gone had the alleged offender been armed.

“Even from the article, how might it have changed if [the offender] was of a threatening nature or had a weapon?” said Watson.

“It could have been something very different, but who says that doesn’t happen next time? If there are no consequences, people will continue to do this and things will progressively get worse.”

Tradie Mike Creedy stopped to visit a motorcycle store about 3pm Monday as four men were running after an alleged thief. Creedy tackled him to the ground and phoned police.

“The guy was running down the middle of the street with an armload of stuff. I took a couple more steps and stopped him,” Creedy told the Herald.

“He put up a big fight. I just had enough. I put him in a headlock, sort of tripped him backwards and put him on the ground on his back. That was enough for the four guys, one on each arm and one on each leg to actually hold him down,” Creedy said.

“He kept yelling, ‘If the police come I’m going to go back to prison’.”

But police told Creedy and his workmates to “let him go”.

“The police asked if he had any weapons and I said ‘not that I can see’. I’m disappointed in the police. We had the guy, he could have been prosecuted, but he got away scot-free.

“We just stepped back and let him go and he took off down the street,” Creedy said.

Christchurch Metro Area Commander Superintendent Lane Todd said police couldn’t attend every callout “due to the nature of police work”.

Todd said police had to prioritise cases where life or safety was at risk, and other calls at the time were more important.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.