Click photo to enlarge
Blood stains on a police vehicle at the scene of the
shooting
The latest shooting of a policeman in South Auckland
yesterday showed how badly police needed better access to guns,
Police Association president Greg O'Connor says.
Constable Jeremy Snow, 28, nearly died when he was hit in
both legs and one arm by a gunman who opened fire as he and a
colleague were checking a suspicious vehicle in Papatoetoe
about 4am yesterday.
Mr Snow dropped to the ground bleeding profusely while his
partner Robert Cato backed off and called for help.
Armed police arrived within minutes and rescued Mr Snow who
was taken to hospital for emergency surgery.
However, Mr O'Connor said the police policy of having weapons
available but not immediately available was not working.
He said during a recent visit to Norway he was shown police
policy in action where front line police had immediate access
to guns in unlocked cabinets in their cars.
"The police officer can decide instantly if they are going to
take a firearm into an incident. "
He said that could work in New Zealand where seven police
officers had been shot in the last year, two of whom died.
He said had the two constables been armed in Papatoetoe, the
"situation might have been quite different".
He said criminals might not have shot at them if they knew
police could have shot back.
He said main offenders were already armed and it was a myth
to say if the police were armed criminals would be armed.
He said many shootings had come out of "very ordinary pieces
of policing. Therefore it is those routine pieces of policing
where officers need to have firearms available, everyday
stuff".
He said it was essentially almost arming police.
