New Zealand

Queen's Birthday Honours: We are pleased to publish and recognise the New Zealand Police recipients of the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service.

FEATURE: Family violence, bullying, social anxiety and Covid are just some of the factors contributing to a significant truancy problem in New Zealand; the NZ Police Association recently reported on a joint operation that has seen a simple knock on the front door of houses reopening the doors to education for hundreds of children in South Auckland.

ANALYSIS: As the race to take on the top role of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police service hots up, it has been revealed that former New Zealand Commissioner of Police Mike Bush has thrown his hat into the ring. PolicingTV presenter and former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Danny Shaw takes a closer look at the man behind the uniform and, if appointed, what impact he might have on policing London.

ANALYSIS: With business, security and many other aspects of everyday life increasingly reliant on software, the frequency of attacks on the software supply chain – and their potential impact – is growing; Sarah Sloan, Palo Alto Networks’ Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy for ANZ, looks at what more Australia could be doing to tackle the software security threat.

INTERVIEW: New Zealand Police Senior Sergeant Steve Harwood has led disaster victim identification (DVI) teams in the wake of some of the world’s largest mass casualty events; and while officers and staff are driven by the desire to reunite grieving relatives with the remains of their loved ones, the mental and physical wellbeing of those teams must also be a priority, as he explained to Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: The burden of mental health callouts on police across New Zealand could be significantly reduced if a multi-agency response model that has proven successful during trials in Wellington is approved – and funded – for use across all Police districts, as Ellen Brook of the New Zealand Police Association explains.

FEATURE: The lengthy ‘vaccine mandate’ protests in front of New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington have been challenging to police, and have attracted a wide range of extreme activists; Massey University Professor Paul Spoonley argues that such extremism has been evident in New Zealand society for some time – more information and action will be needed to tackle it going forwards.

OPINION: Policing protests during Covid is proving challenging for many forces, and the anti-vaxxers and others who have gathered at New Zealand’s parliament grounds in Wellington have been difficult to dislodge; Monash University Criminology Lecturer Dr Ross Hendy, a former NZ Police sergeant, believes that while the waiting game may not be the ideal response politically, it could be the safest route to a peaceful resolution.

LONG READ: The use of naloxone by officers to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses is being trialled by several UK forces, having saved hundreds of lives in the US and Canada, and debates are ongoing in Australia and New Zealand – but not everyone believes it’s the best way forward; Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro takes an in-depth look at the impact the medication can have, how and where it is being used, and the barriers to a wider roll-out.

FEATURE: NZ Police has paused introduction of live automated facial recognition technology (FRT) after researchers highlighted concerns over accuracy, the disproportionate impact on the Māori community, and legal and ethical issues; Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons spoke to researchers and the force about the report’s recommendations, and what they mean for the police use of FRT.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Singapore Civil Defence Force, who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many police and security agencies from the UK and around the world with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.

New Year Honours: We are pleased to publish and recognise the policing recipients of the UK and overseas New Year Honours as well as the New Zealand Order of Merit. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service in another challenging year.

ANALYSIS: The rapid advancement of new technology is creating a range of potential uses and applications in law enforcement settings, as well as mounting public and community concern around the ethical use of tech; in this article Inspector Carla Gilmore, Manager - Emergent Technologies for New Zealand Police, explains how the force is creating new policies and frameworks to ensure emerging technology is used safely and responsibly.

LONG READ: The death of George Floyd shone the spotlight strongly on police use of force, but many police services and departments had already recognised concerns and were attempting to address the issue; however, the lack of data on the effectiveness of training in areas such as de-escalation have left it difficult to identify what works and why, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr-Munro reports.

FEATURE: Amid concerns that officers experiencing the mental health impact of critical firearms incidents were not receiving enough ‘return to work’ support, New Zealand Police have a adopted a peer-led approach to post-incident reintegration; Dr Anna Sutton of the University of Waikato explained to delegates at the recent Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing (ANZSEBP) Conference how ongoing research to evaluate the programme could help to improve reintegration for affected officers.

FEATURE: The latest Member Survey of the New Zealand Police Association has confirmed that frontline support for the general arming of officers is at its highest level in a decade, with almost three quarters of officers backing the right to carry firearms routinely on duty; the increase in support comes against a backdrop of increased violence, prompting heartfelt concerns over safety and security from officers themselves.

OPINION: A temporary law introduced in New Zealand last summer allowing buyers of drugs to have them independently checked without risking prosecution looks set to become permanent this year; if it does, Professor Alexander Gillespie of the University of Waikato believes it will make the citizens of New Zealand safer, and reflect a legislative trend towards harm reduction

FEATURE: New Zealand Police have worked with Australia’s Griffith University to take a critical look at their command and control processes, and improve understanding of good leadership and effective management; speaking at the Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing (ANZSEBP) Conference, Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny and Professor Justin Ready outlined the findings of their work, and plans to share best practice and lessons learned across the organisation.

FEATURE: Speaking at the launch of this year’s Australia and New Zealand Society for Evidence-Based Policing Annual Conference, Society President Supt David Cowan encouraged officers and staff to lead evidence-based policing “that will make a difference”, and highlighted the “slowly shifting relationship” between policing and academia, reports Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: The recent upsurge in gang membership and conflict in New Zealand has prompted a fresh focus on their criminal activity; but ahead of this week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Dr Jarrod Gilbert of the University of Canterbury warns that equating patched gangs with organised crime ignores the evidence, and will result in law enforcement and socio-economic approaches to gang issues that are unlikely to be effective.

ANALYSIS: Crime prevention programmes in many countries often adopt a blanket approach to communities, with little regard to race or culture; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, researchers Dr Kabir Dasgupta, Dr André Diegmann, Professor Tom Kirchmaier and Dr Alexander Plum discuss their latest study which highlights the role of ethnicity in the criminal behaviour of young fathers, and suggests that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy response to crime reduction is likely to fail.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The 2021 Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence Base Policing (ANZSEBP) Conference is taking place online on 17th August with the theme of "Policing Under Scrutiny: Leadership, Legitimacy and the Role of Evidence". ANZSEBP Vice President and Deputy Chief Executive: Insights and Deployment at New Zealand Police, Mark Evans invites delegates from around the world to attend.

OPINION: Defining laws on hate speech is notoriously difficult; but as New Zealand considers new legislation to protect groups against the impact of hate speech, Dr Eddie Clark, Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, believes that the current insistence on proving a link to inciting violence as a precondition for defining hate speech regulation is wrong, and contradicts other existing forms of speech regulation in New Zealand law.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Western Australia Police Force, who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many police forces from the UK and around the world with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.