Police acknowledge the findings of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) into an incident where a man was tasered three times while resisting arrest.
On 14 October 2018, officers were patrolling Queen Street in Auckland’s CBD and came across a man known to Police who they identified as breaching his bail conditions.
During the process of being arrested, the man resisted and violently assaulted one officer by punching him in the face and throwing him against a Police vehicle. He then attempted to assault a second officer.
One attending officer used OC Spray and deployed their taser, both of which were initially unsuccessful.
It took a further two discharges to be able to restrain this man and complete the arrest.
The IPCA’s investigation criticised the Police supervision of junior staff during the course of the incident, which it found wasn’t adequate.
However, the report found that the first two taser discharges were justified. It also found the third, to prevent an officer from being assaulted further, was also justified.
Superintendent Karyn Malthus, Auckland City District Commander, says Police acknowledge the report’s finding arounds failures in the command and control of the incident.
“This was a situation that escalated quickly for those attending staff, particularly with the level of violence directed at them.
“However, we acknowledge that the supervision provided to staff that morning fell short of what Police expectations were.”
Superintendent Malthus says the staff involved received further training following the incident.
“We are an organisation committed to ongoing development and we accordingly made a number of improvements to ensure that staff are appropriately supported in the field, which we note the IPCA has acknowledged in its report.”
