Total recorded assaults on Police - New Zealand Police Association

PoliceNewsThe Voice of PolicePolice Association continues call forNorwegian-style lock boxes in carsIn light of recent vicious attacks on policeofficers, the NZ Police Association is callingupon Police Commissioner Howard Broad tohave Norwegian-style lock boxes in the frontof every Police vehicle.Norway is quite similar in many respectsto New Zealand. It has a population of 4.9million, as against New Zealand’s 4.2 millionbut has a worse police-to-population ratio.Some 8,700 sworn police and 3,000 nonswornstaff make up the Norwegian PoliceForce while New Zealand has 8,654 swornstaff and 3,091 non-sworn employees.Norway, like New Zealand, has a nationalforce. It has 27 Police Districts. Oslo, thecapital, is to Norway what Auckland is toNew Zealand – their major crime area.Norway has similar armed response officers– like the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) torespond to armed incidents.Only unarmed officers in EuropeNorwegian police are the only unarmedofficers in mainland Europe.However, they are as armed as it is legallypossible to be without actually carryingweapons every hour of the day.Norway was essentially the same as NewZealand with regard to arming officers untilthe famed ‘Stavaanger incident’ on the westcoast.A well-organised group of Norwegiancriminals, assisted by Yugoslavians,carried out a series of well-planned andwell-executed bank robberies. A previousOslo bank robbery resulted in a shootoutwhere the offenders escaped because theycompletely outgunned the police.In Stavaanger, police turned up, thecommander was killed in his vehicle andthe other attending police, all armed withrevolvers, were completely outgunned bythe criminals. They only survived becausethey took refuge in a restaurant, which hadpreviously been a bank and therefore hadbullet-proof windows.Genesis for further debateThat set in motion a debate around armingpolice and resulted in officers being armedwith Heckler and Koch semi-automaticpistols, similar to the Glock, with MP5sboth kept literally within arm’s reach in thevehicle. In theory, the Norwegian modelworks on the premise that the DistrictCommander or his equivalent, shouldauthorise every issue of a firearm but there• Norwegian Police’s firearms lockboxes,which sit in the front console of the policecar.is plenty of flexibility around this. ControlCommanders, for instance, have plentyof discretion, as do individual officers ifthey deem the risk “too urgent to seekpermission”.The real debate on general arming ofNorwegian police began in 1996 thoughwhen two officers were shot in a situationwhere firearms would have saved them. Itwas, however, the Stavaanger killing, whichbrought the debate to a head.Firearms trainingNorwegian firearms training is intense andconducted under strict protocols. Officersmust be certified each year. People do faildespite three opportunities to pass the test.Officers have four firearms training days peryear – two to train, one for theory and oneto qualify.The emphasis is on an officer feeling morecomfortable handling a firearm as much asit is with any adherence to accuracy. Thepistols are personal issue but the rifles arenot. Pistols and all bulletproof vests etc arelocked in a separate locker room to personalitems.A distinct feature of the pistols used byNorwegian police officers is that every pistolhas a flashlight attached. They train withthe flashlight attached using it to warn or‘laser paint’ offenders. The flashlight hasa separate control from the trigger. Theflashlight does add weight to the pistol,however.The Norwegian lock boxes have room forboth a Taser and a firearm.10.25% pa68April 2010