Police Commissioner backs away from Taser comments

Howard Broad

Police Commissioner Howard Broad today denied he is using scare tactics in talking about the pressure to arm police with guns if they can't have Tasers.

Mr Broad yesterday conceded that there would be pressure to arm police if Taser guns, using an electric current, were found to be unsuitable in trials, the Dominion Post reported.

Mr Broad cited "strong forces" wanting police to carry guns but did not elaborate on who they were.

Speaking on Radio New Zealand today, Mr Broad again declined to name who the strong forces were, and when asked if the words were appropriate conceded "probably not".

"I want to support the considered approach and warn against a reactionary approach," he said.

Guns had to be a last resort, said Marie Dyhrberg from the Campaign Against the Taser group.

"It is very disconcerting to hear the top policeman in New Zealand make a statement that I have recorded from his interview last night that if they are not successful in the Tasers then there are strong forces at play that would want us, meaning the police, to move to a fully armed police service," she said.

"I find that very disturbing. Who are these strong forces? We did not have open scrutiny or debate before the introduction of Tasers. We don't know who is pushing it, who is promoting it."

Mr Broad said New Zealand stood out from the rest of the world for having an unarmed police force. "And I want to keep it that way."

"I'm concerned in the advent of a tragic incident these voices would combine and potentially carry the day and I don't want that."

He had heard sufficient number of these "voices" in his recent career to be concerned.

The Police Association wants to get in the face of potential criminals and those in favour of softer community-based solutions to get out of their way, according to president Greg O'Connor, who opened the association's conference in Wellington yesterday.

Mr O'Connor blasted the "experts... safely ensconced in their leafy middle class suburbs" and said it was naive to think violence was solely a community problem.

"We are the coercive arm of the state that must be able to impose the will of the state on those who would thumb their noses at the laws," he said. "We must have the power and ability to do that."

- NZPA