KEY POINTS:
A Westport policeman has joined a other officers in calling for police to have Taser guns before one of them dies on duty.
Because of increasing violence, police needed to be issued with the Taser guns immediately, Senior Constable Denis Bergman said in the magazine Police News.
Mr Bergman was last year set upon in an incident involving up to 60 youths. He was knocked to the ground, and credited his stab-proof vest with saving him.
He said when police faced such violent incidents they needed the Taser guns and further delays in their issue could lead to a police officer dying.
"I was very lucky but someone else may not be." he said.
A Taser delivered a 50,000-volt, non-lethal charge to an offender who refused police instructions or who was unaffected by pepper spray.
After a year-long trial in Auckland and Wellington ended last year, police said they were desperately needed because they could stop offenders without killing them.
But opponents of the weapon said they were dangerous and had killed people in the United States - the New Zealand guns delivered a lower voltage than those used in the US.
Mr Bergman said there were people who wanted to take away from police their ability to protect themselves and the public.
He was fortunate his vest absorbed the kicking he took after being knocked to the ground in the incident involving up to 60 youths.
Meanwhile, a Christchurch policeman said he was still waiting to hear if he had contracted anything after being stabbed by a syringe as he searched a prisoner.
Sergeant Jim Currie said in the same issue of the magazine he was dismayed with the bureaucracy of the police as the number of violent incidents increased.
He said police management in New Zealand were "sitting and twiddling their thumbs" and saying the rising trend in US and England for youths to carry knives "won't happen here."
He said known drug addicts carried syringes "full of God knows what" and sometimes used them to facilitate their escape.
He said the body armour was good but left a lot of exposed area where a syringe could cause damage.
He said the financial restraints on the supply of new uniforms and equipment was of little comfort to the wives, partners and children of police hurt "because they didn't have the necessary equipment while on duty".
Police bosses should issued equipment before someone else got hurt and Tasers should be issued as a priority, he said.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad was considering a report on the Taser trial.
- NZPA
