<strong>Police</strong><strong><strong>New</strong>s</strong>The Voice of <strong>Police</strong>POLICE ASSOCIATION (NIELSEN) MEMBERS’ SURVEYWidespread support for Tasersfrom police staff and the publicBy Deb Stringer, Communications AssistantSupport for Tasers is widespread amongpolice, according to the <strong>Police</strong> <strong>Association</strong>Members’ Survey conducted by NielsenResearch late last year.The public are also strongly in favour ofpolice being able to use Tasers.According to the research, 93% of policesupport using Tasers.There is strong public backing with 75% ofthe public also approving of their use.General Arming - TasersAll in favourThe police sub-group that favoured theuse of the devices the most were GeneralDuties Branch (GDB) frontline staff – withan overwhelming 96% in support. Whilesupport was high across all areas anddistricts, Waitemata, with 96% provided thehighest. Constables and those who had lessthan 10 years service indicated a 95% levelof support for Taser use.Inspectors and above and those who hadbeen in the force for 20 years or more wereless supportive of the idea, registering 76%support.Strong support from injured officersPerhaps not surprisingly, members whohad been threatened with a firearm wereparticularly in favour of being able to useTasers.Over half (52%) of the constables surveyedwere involved in an incident in the lastyear they believed could have been betterresolved had they been carrying a Taser.Support for Tasers is widespread with 93% in support of the general issuingof Tasers to policeDo you support or oppose the general issuing to police of Tasers?Not sureTotal3934%Constables3943%Employees3907%OpposeSupport%Base: All respondents (n=5526)Some for the lexophilesLexophiles are people who love words andplaying with words (just in case you didn’tknow). Here are a few examples of whatlexophiles might like.• I wondered why the baseball wasgetting bigger. Then it hit me.• <strong>Police</strong> were called to a day care wherea three-year-old was resisting a rest.• Did you hear about the guy whose wholeleft side was cut off? He’s all right now.• The roundest knight at King Arthur’sround table was Sir Cumference.• The butcher backed up into the meatgrinder and got a little behind in his work.• To write with a broken pencil is pointless.• When fish are in schools they sometimestake debate.• A thief who stole a calendar got 12months.• The short fortune-teller who escapedfrom prison was a small medium atlarge.84<strong>May</strong> 2009
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Police</strong> <strong>Association</strong>Nearly one in every two constableshas been threatened with a weaponBy Deb Stringer, Communications AssistantApproximately half of all constables werethreatened with a weapon last year, the <strong>Police</strong><strong>Association</strong> Members’ Survey has found.The survey, conducted by Nielsen in November2008, found forty-seven percent (47%) ofall constabulary (sworn) members had beenthreatened with a weapon other than a firearmat least once while on duty during the previousyear. Seven percent (7%) were threatened atleast once with a firearm.General Duties Branch (GDB) frontline stafffaced an even higher incidence of threats – witheleven percent (11%) threatened with a firearmand sixty-seven percent (67%) threatened atleast once with any other weapon.More than one-third of members (36%) whowere threatened said they did not report theincident.Alarmingly, the survey revealed that officers arefacing not only high levels of threats, but alsoactual physical violence. More than forty-threepercent (43%) of constables said they hadbeen attacked at least once by an offenderin the last year, with thirteen percent (13%)assaulted three or more times. One in five saidthey were injured at least ocne by an offenderwhile on duty last year.Once again, rates of assault and injury werehighest amongst GDB frontline staff, witheighty-six percent (86%) saying they wereattacked once or more by an offender in thelast year, and thirty-three percent (33%) beinginjured.Concerning trendThe <strong>Association</strong>’s last members’ survey wasdone in 2005, and on that occasion memberswere asked to recall incidents where they werethreatened with a firearm or any other weaponover the previous three-year period.In 2005, fourteen percent (14%) of constablesindicated they had been threatened with afirearm over a three-year period, comparedwith seven percent (7%) in the one-yearperiod asked about in 2008. This indicatesan increase in the incidence of threats withfirearms.However, there was an even more significantincrease between the two surveys in thenumber of threats with weapons other than afirearm.The 2005 survey found that fifty-two percent(52%) of constables had been threatenedwith a weapon other than a firearm over theprevious three years, while forty-seven percent(47%) in the 2008 survey indicated a threatover the last year alone.According to <strong>Police</strong> statistics, over the past10 years (1998-2008) the total number ofassaults on police has risen by twenty-sevenpercent (27%). The number of assaults onpolice with weapons has jumped seventy-twopercent (72%) within the same time frame.USA: Aggressive action to improve officer safetyresults in lowest death toll in 50 yearsIn a clear demonstration of the effectivenessof putting new emphasis on defensive tacticsequipment such as Tasers and firearmstraining, <strong>Police</strong> departments across the USAreported a dramatic reduction in police officerfatalities across the country last year, after2007 was one of the deadliest years in twodecades.The number of police officers killed by gunfirein 2008 dropped to its lowest level in morethan 50 years, according to a report from theNational Law Enforcement Officers’ MemorialFund.Forty-one officers were shot and killed in2008, down 40% from 68 in 2007. That’sthe lowest number since 1956, when 35officers died from gunfire. The U.S. populationtoday is 305 million, compared with 169million in 1956.140 killed on dutyThe total number of officers who died in theline of duty – 140 - dropped 23% from 181in 2007, one of the highest totals in twodecades. The overall figure includes policekilled in traffic fatalities and other accidentsplus shooting deaths.The high number of police deaths in 2007spurred a new emphasis on officer safetytraining and equipment, said Memorial FundChairman Craig Floyd. More officers arewearing body armour and using stun guns toprotect themselves, he told USA Today.“2007 really became a wake-up call for lawenforcement in this country,” Floyd told thepaper. “There were aggressive actions takento improve officer safety.”Effects of recession on trainingYet Ed Nowicki, Executive Director of theInternational Law Enforcement Educators andTrainers’ <strong>Association</strong>, says he fears a tighteconomy and shrinking police budgets willforce departments to cut back training.“You need cars, you need firearms, andyou need uniforms. Training is an abstract,”Nowicki said. “The number of deaths in 2008is nothing compared to the deaths in the late1960s and 1970s. It was much higher then.Better training and equipment have made adifference.”The Philadelphia <strong>Police</strong> Department hadfour fatalities last year, including one femaleofficer. That was the most police deaths ofany agency in the USA and accounted for halfthe police deaths in Pennsylvania, the studysaid.No police deathsPhiladelphia did not have any police deathsfrom 1996 to 2006. Philadelphia <strong>Police</strong>Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said thecity’s murder problem is fundamentally a gunproblem.Johnson and other city leaders blame stategun laws. In Pennsylvania, as in all but 12states, a permit is not required to buy ahandgun, nor do guns have to be registered.“Law enforcement is doing everything wecan. Do we take some responsibility for it? Ofcourse we do,” Johnson says.Other findingsOther findings in the National LawEnforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund reportwere:• Female officers, for the first time,accounted for more than 10% of officerskilled in a single year. The number offemale officers killed, 15, matched thehigh of 2002;• For the 11th consecutive year, moreofficers died from traffic-relatedincidents than any other cause of death;and• Other fatalities included two officerswho died in a bombing, two whowere stabbed and two who died in ahelicopter crash.Sources: USA Today and The National LawEnforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund.<strong>May</strong> 200985
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