<strong>Police</strong><strong>New</strong>sThe Voice of <strong>Police</strong>The Voice of <strong>Police</strong>VOLUME 43 • NUMBER 3 • April 2010NZ <strong>Police</strong> Associati<strong>on</strong> <strong>Police</strong> <strong>New</strong>s is the magazine ofthe <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Police</strong> Associati<strong>on</strong> and incorporates the<strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Police</strong> Journal first published in 1937.April 2010, Vol. 43, No.3ISSN 1175-9445Deadline for next issue Thursday, April 15 2010.Published by the <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Police</strong> Associati<strong>on</strong>P.O. Box 12344, Willbank House, 57 Willis Street, Wellingt<strong>on</strong>.Ph<strong>on</strong>e: (04) 496 6800, Facsmile: (04) 471 130960shockerEditor: Steve PlowmanEmail: editor@policeassn.org.nzWebsite: www.policeassn.org.nzPrinted by City Print Communicati<strong>on</strong>s, Wellingt<strong>on</strong>.Opini<strong>on</strong>s expressed are not necessarily those of theAssociati<strong>on</strong>.COPYRIGHT: NZPA <strong>Police</strong> <strong>New</strong>s must not be reproduced inpart or as a whole without the formal c<strong>on</strong>sent of the copyrightholder – the <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Police</strong> Associati<strong>on</strong>.C<strong>on</strong>tentsFrom the President 59Lucky escape for two Kiwi officers caught in Chile earthquake 60/61Brain teaser 61<strong>Police</strong> Health Plan increases 6268shocking stats77oh the shock• Fr<strong>on</strong>t page: <strong>Police</strong> assault statistics show a sustainedupward trend and the viciousness of attacks has risensubstantially over recent years. In the wake of recent attacksthe Government is c<strong>on</strong>sidering harsher penalties for thosewho attack police officers. That is a good thing if the rhetoricbecomes reality and if the judiciary finally get the messagethat an attack <strong>on</strong> a police officer is an attack <strong>on</strong> the State andits system of law. This is not ‘just a <strong>Police</strong> problem’ – it is aproblem that society ignores at its peril. If police officers aren’tsafe then who is?Knife report released by Justice Minister 63Joint initiative nets huge counterfeit medicine haul 63A day in the life of the …NZ <strong>Police</strong> Highway Patrol 64/65Firm deterrent needed for those who attack police officers 66/67<strong>Police</strong> Associati<strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>tinues call for Norwegian-style lock boxes 68Tips right from the burglar’s mouth 69<strong>Police</strong> (Dad) to the rescue 70Cook Islands <strong>Police</strong> Force faces major restructure 70View from the bottom/Memorial Wall 71Making the most of your investments (Spicers advertorial) 72Copper’s crossword 74Senior British police officer gets four years for corrupti<strong>on</strong> 74Keen <strong>on</strong> wine 75Holiday home availability chart 76Sports <strong>New</strong>s 77/80Letters to the Editor 81/82<strong>New</strong> York’s keystroke cops go back to the future 83<strong>Police</strong> Travelpac Insurance 84Knife report released byJustice Minister - page 6358April 2010
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>Police</strong> Associati<strong>on</strong>“Favours accepted, coupled with inappropriateassociati<strong>on</strong>s, a belief you are worth more than youare getting and that no <strong>on</strong>e seems to care about aparticular problem, and you have theingredients for corrupti<strong>on</strong>.”The insidious creep of corrupti<strong>on</strong>Crime is about opportunity.When I was a young beat cop inWellingt<strong>on</strong> in the 1970s, there were veryfew <str<strong>on</strong>g>assaults</str<strong>on</strong>g> or stand-overs in CourtenayPlace because there were no bars orpeople present after 10 p.m. So there wasa very low likelihood of either happening.Today, numerous pubs and thr<strong>on</strong>gs ofpeople until the wee small hours meanthere are plenty of both.Another major change to the nati<strong>on</strong>alcrime scene since then is the arrival ofwell-entrenched and well-establishedorganised crime groups.Their presence opens up the opportunityfor another type of crime that didn’t reallyexist in <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> in the 1970s andbefore, and that’s corrupti<strong>on</strong>.We have groups operating in <strong>New</strong><strong>Zealand</strong> now for whom corrupti<strong>on</strong> ofpublic officials is a craft h<strong>on</strong>ed overcenturies, particularly Asian gangs, andother more c<strong>on</strong>temporary groups whoare learning the art through exposure andpractice.It’s subtle. No <strong>on</strong>e ever woke up <strong>on</strong>eday and decided he or she would be acrooked official. It’s far more incrementalthan that and it’s more like wakingup and realising that you are alreadycompromised. Favours accepted, coupledwith inappropriate associati<strong>on</strong>s, a beliefyou are worth more than you are gettingand that no <strong>on</strong>e seems to care about aparticular problem, and you have theingredients for corrupti<strong>on</strong>.It is naïve to think that with theexp<strong>on</strong>ential growth of organised crimein <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> <strong>on</strong> the back of the Pepidemic that attempts will not be madeto compromise <strong>Police</strong> staff and otherlaw enforcement officials, particularlyCustoms and Correcti<strong>on</strong>s officers.We have not yet had a major corrupti<strong>on</strong>case in <strong>Police</strong> and we fervently hope wew<strong>on</strong>’t.Some<strong>on</strong>e reading this might realise theyare in danger of or may even have alreadybeen compromised. If that is the case,my str<strong>on</strong>g advice is to get out of yoursituati<strong>on</strong> now. It may mean telling allto your boss and being prepared to facesome c<strong>on</strong>sequences. It’s better thoughthan c<strong>on</strong>tinuing <strong>on</strong> and not <strong>on</strong>ly bringingyour own world down in a resoundingcrash, but also that of your family and allof your <strong>Police</strong> colleagues.I may be unduly c<strong>on</strong>cerned aboutsomething that may never happen but,as I would be naïve to think that turningCourtenay Place into party central wouldhave no impact <strong>on</strong> offending, I wouldbe equally unworldly to believe theentrenchment of organised crime wouldnot likewise create an envir<strong>on</strong>ment wherecorrupti<strong>on</strong> could take hold.I hope I’m wr<strong>on</strong>g.The arming debate:Armed incident in <strong>New</strong> York brings homethe need for rifles in patrol carsThe vexed issue of arming police officersis not unique to <strong>New</strong> <strong>Zealand</strong> as isevidenced by the recent galvanising ofopini<strong>on</strong>s from Albany (<strong>New</strong> York)police officers, who are calling for theimmediate issuing of rifles to fr<strong>on</strong>tlinepolice after an incident in January of lastyear.Here’s what The Albany Times Uni<strong>on</strong>newspaper had to say about the incident.For 40 minutes <strong>on</strong> a Saturday lastJanuary, Darrel O Brown brought terrorto a strip of I-90 as he used a modifiedAK-47 to shoot at State <strong>Police</strong> officerswho had tried to pull him over.The troopers took cover <strong>on</strong> the roadbetween exits 9 and 10 in East Greenbush.They knew Brown had them outgunned.Call for assault riflesNow, State <strong>Police</strong> Superintendent HarryCorbitt wants to outfit every State <strong>Police</strong>patrol car in <strong>New</strong> York with a highpowered,semi-automatic assault rifle.“During that incident there were severalhundred civilians whose lives were put injeopardy because it took over 40 minutesfor us to get a rifle pers<strong>on</strong> to the sceneto terminate that situati<strong>on</strong>, yet we hada stati<strong>on</strong> five minutes away,” Corbitttestified at a legislative budget hearingrecently. “If we looked at what’s plannedand what’s hoped for, we certainly wouldhave been able to terminate that situati<strong>on</strong>within seven to 10 minutes.”A State <strong>Police</strong> sniper eventually killedBrown, a 23-year-old carjacking suspectfrom Hartford, C<strong>on</strong>necticut, who washigh <strong>on</strong> PCP (angel dust) at the time ofthe incident.TrainingThe State <strong>Police</strong> have 264 rifles -variati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>on</strong> the AR-15 - deployedaround the state. Corbitt said it wouldtake approximately six m<strong>on</strong>ths to trainevery trooper and investigator doingfield work in how to use the rifles, andthat about 700 more would need to bepurchased to outfit the patrol cars.The weap<strong>on</strong>s retail at $1,100 each, butCorbitt said it would cost “probably$950,000” to buy the additi<strong>on</strong>al riflesand c<strong>on</strong>duct the necessary training. Theweap<strong>on</strong>s weigh less than eight poundsand are accurate to within an inch at 100metres.State <strong>Police</strong> patrol cars currently haveshotgun racks, and troopers carryhandguns - neither of which was effectiveagainst Brown, according to TroopersPBA President Thomas Mungeer.“We have the shotguns and we havea .45-calibre,” said Mungeer, whoseorganisati<strong>on</strong> has pushed for the upgradesfor some time. “Neither of those weap<strong>on</strong>swas effective against somebody who wasbent, with a rifle, <strong>on</strong> trying to shootsomebody. It was <strong>on</strong>ly by the grace ofGod that somebody - either a trooper ora civilian - wasn’t hurt.”April 201059