Policy on gun use outlined

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 17

Policy on gun use outlined

PA Wellington The police were allowed to use handguns to arrest a person or to stop him from escaping if they had reasonable grounds to believe either action could not be. achieved in a less violent manner or if lives could be in danger, said Deputy Commissioner K. O. Thompson, when explaining police policy and law relating to firearms after the accidental shooting of a youth, aged 17, near Kurow, in North Otago. The Crimes Act, 1961, provides for the police to use firearms to protect themselves or anyone else when they have reasonable fear that death or grievous bodily harm may ensue and cannot otherwise' protect those people. District commanders can permit designated staff to

carry firearms when it is thought that situations may arise where weapons could be needed. Mr Thompson said country police, “who are, of necessity, mature and experienced members,” had access to firearms which they might carry when dangerous situations arose. But they, like all police, were subject to the law and police general instructions. he said. The police can use guns to destroy sick, injured, or dangerous animals. The standard police firearms are the .38 Special Smith and Wesson revolver and the .222 Sako-Vixen rifle. General instructions specified that members might not carry firearms in the normal course of duty except where they had reasonable grounds to expect a situation in which it might be necessary

to protect themselves or other people from death or grievous bodily harm, said Mr Thompson. “The Crimes Act, in placing a criminal liability on the police for any lack of care to take adequate precautions which may endanger life, puts the police in the same position as any other member of the public," Mr Thompson said. In 1980, the Commissioner of Police. Mr R. J. Walton, said that in the previous year

there had been a 26.9 per cent increase in firearm-re-lated offences compared with 1978. ’ ' He said this had, regrettably, led to an increase in the number of times the police had had to carry firearms. “We are faced with the realities of policing this country effectively and to do this firearms have to be readily available,” he was quoted as saying.