The Police Association president says today’s events in Auckland in which an officer was shot dead is emblematic of the job becoming more dangerous due to “too many firearms” in criminals’ hands.
A police officer was killed, another shot and injured, and a civilian injured in the incident in the suburb of Massey this morning.
At the time of writing, police are speaking to two "people of interest" in connection with the fatal shooting.
Speaking with TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp, Chris Cahill said even routine policing duties like traffic stops - which led to the death of the officer today - could be dangerous.
Mr Cahill said this risk was always present because officers were always dealing with people in fast-changing situations.
“Unfortunately, [policing] is getting more dangerous. There’s always an element of risk with policing,” he said.
“You just never know exactly what one incident will be like.
“But, the reality is, we’ve seen far too many firearms in the hands of criminals.”
He said the criminals’ willingness to use guns led to tragedies like today.
“Unfortunately, this just shows that that’s the case.”
Mr Cahill said vehicles could be stopped “normally, with a safe result” for reasons ranging from speeding, the way someone is driving to an expired warrant of fitness.
He said initial investigations from today showed the shooting seemed to have “erupted out of the blue”.
“That does highlight the risks of policing.”
He said today was “a sad day for New Zealand”.
Speaking to the family of the slain officer, he said: “We’ll give them the comfort they need … New Zealand is behind them as well.”
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