An officer who punched and elbowed a man he was trying to arrest used “unjustified and excessive force”, the police watchdog has found.
It comes after an Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) investigation into an incident in Rotorua on 13 September 2021.
The incident occurred at around 2.45pm that afternoon, when two officers noticed a vehicle “being driven erratically” and decided to pull it over.
It stopped in an empty motel carpark and was “parked and empty” when police found it.
Police noted the car had been reported stolen, and when the driver returned to his car 20 seconds later he was questioned.
He told the two officers the car belonged to him — it was also registered to him on the police database.
However, a check of the man’s license revealed he was due to be suspended from driving due to demerit points, and he was issued paperwork relating to this.
CCTV footage captured the man talking “openly” to the officers.
Things got ugly when one of the officers asked the man to hand them his car keys so the vehicle could be seized. He reiterated the car was not stolen and refused to hand over the keys.
It was later confirmed he didn't have his keys on him.
The officer warned the man that if he did not hand over the keys, he would be arrested for obstruction.
After the warning and still no compliance, the officers decided to arrest him.
The officers described him as being “abusive and aggressive”, but the man says he was generally compliant — which is supported by the CCTV footage.
As one of the officers attempted to take the man into custody, he “tried to move away”.
This caused the officer to grab the man and push him against a wall before hitting him with a “significant elbow strike” and several punches to the body and head.
“That like dazed me a bit,” the man told the IPCA.
“Full-cocked punches and elbows, and they’ve both pretty much got on, got onto me. I was scared to death at the time.”
Describing the arrest, the offender said: “I've thrown three or four punches to his abdomen 'cos I don’t want those, immediately, to be to his face.
“Then I've thrown a couple of elbow strikes to him. I can't remember whether any of them connected.”
The other officer took hold of the man, restrained him with handcuffs and placed him in the patrol car.
He was charged with obstruction and resisting arrest, but these were later withdrawn following his second court appearance.
Initially, police conducted their own investigation into the incident, but the IPCA found this to be “fundamentally flawed”.
In their own investigation, the authority found the officer had “no legal power in the circumstances to require Mr Z to hand over the keys”. Because of this, the arrest for obstruction was “unlawful”.
They also found the officer's use of force was “unjustified”.
“The Authority additionally found that, even if the arrest had been lawful, the level of force used by Officer A was disproportionate and unreasonable.”
Police respond to findings
Police have acknowledged the IPCA’s findings and accepted the arrest was unlawful.
It said: “Our officer had good cause to suspect that the man was either unlawfully in a vehicle or had unlawfully taken a vehicle, and so should have arrested him for that offence rather than obstruction.”
“Our staff were acting in good faith when they attended this incident,” Bay of Plenty commander Superintendant Tim Anderson said.
Speaking to the IPCA a few months later, the officer involved said: “There was no legal justification, I said I put him at active resistance.
"To justify those actions, my PCA would have to have placed him at assaultive, being fully aware of the Tactical Options framework. To answer your question, no, there was no justification for those strikes.
“At the time of the [Police] interview, I can only say that I believed, based on all the circumstances, that [Mr Z] was assaultive, and as time has gone on and leading up to this, I've had a lot more time of reflection …”
Both officers remain members of the New Zealand Police.
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