The Strategic Impact of routine arming the New Zealand Police | Dissertation
© 2012 Ross Hendy
The Strategic Impact of routine arming the
New Zealand Police
Ross Hendy
Submitted for the degree of
Master of Strategic Studies (M.S.S.)
School of Government
Victoria University of Wellington
January 2012
(Typos corrected April 2012)
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The Strategic Impact of routine arming the New Zealand Police | Dissertation
© 2012 Ross Hendy
Abstract
Recently there have been calls to change the New Zealand Police firearm policy so that police
officers are routinely armed at all times. It is believed that an armed police force interacts in
society differently from an unarmed police force and little is known about how the change to
an armed force will affect the relationship between the police and the public. The purpose of
this study is to identify these issues by studying comparable jurisdictions and to predict how
they might alter the strategic relationship between New Zealand society and police. The police
of England and Wales, Norway and Sweden were compared. Prominent themes emerged from
the study. For the police-public relationship to remain functional, the police must maintain a
high level of police legitimacy. Legitimacy can be affected by the manner in which the police
use firearms. The use of firearms by police officers is influenced by departmental policy and
their independent perception of the degree of risk they face. The main conclusions drawn
from this research were that it was not likely that a barrier would emerge between the police
and public nor was there likely to be a significant impact on the police’s ability to police by
consent if the police become routinely armed. However routinely arming the New Zealand
police might lead to a reduction in police safety as officers may be more inclined to engage in
dangerous situations.
The Strategic Impact of routine arming the New Zealand Police | Dissertation
© 2012 Ross Hendy
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge support from New Zealand Police and the New Zealand Police
Association who have assisted with this project through financial contribution towards the
cost of academic fees and provision of study leave.
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Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................3
Abbreviations & terminology .................................................................................................6
Figures & Tables .......................................................................................................................7
Chapter 1 – Research Project..................................................................................................8
1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................8
1.2 Building the research question .................................................................................................................9
1.3 Literature search: arguments for and against routine arming ...........................................................10
The New Zealand View........................................................................................................................ 11
Other Key Sources................................................................................................................................. 12
British Literature .................................................................................................................................. 13
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 14
1.4 Literature search: strategic theory..........................................................................................................15
The relationship between the police and the public............................................................................ 15
Strategic Theory.................................................................................................................................... 17
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 20
1.5 Emerging Issues ........................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 2 – Research Methods.............................................................................................23
2.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................23
2.2 Research Strategy......................................................................................................................................23
2.3 Data Collection .........................................................................................................................................25
2.4 Framework for analysis ...........................................................................................................................26
2.5 Limitations and potential problems ......................................................................................................27
Chapter 3 – Research findings: broader theory..................................................................29
3.1. Understanding policing: public and specialist policing roles ...........................................................29
3.2 Contemporary Policing Issues................................................................................................................31
Police Legitimacy & Trust.................................................................................................................... 31
Community Policing............................................................................................................................. 34
3.3 Reflections .................................................................................................................................................35
Chapter 4 – Research Findings: Case Studies.....................................................................36
4.1 Introduction to the case studies .............................................................................................................36
4.2 The Police of England and Wales ..........................................................................................................36
A history of English Policing ................................................................................................................ 36
Characteristics and challenges of modern English Policing ............................................................... 38
Use of firearms & tactical considerations ........................................................................................... 41
Threats to Police Legitimacy ................................................................................................................ 42
Emergent risk factors ............................................................................................................................ 44
4.3 The Norwegian Police – Politi- og lensmannsetaten ...........................................................................44
A brief history ....................................................................................................................................... 44
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Police Legitimacy & Policing Characteristics...................................................................................... 45
Use of firearms & tactical considerations ........................................................................................... 46
Emergent risk factors ............................................................................................................................ 50
4.4 The Swedish police – Polismyndigheten ................................................................................................50
A brief introduction.............................................................................................................................. 50
Police legitimacy ................................................................................................................................... 51
Use of Firearms & Tactical Considerations ........................................................................................ 54
Comparisons amongst other Nordic countries ................................................................................... 60
Emergent factors ................................................................................................................................... 62
4.5 Emerging Issues ........................................................................................................................................62
Perception of threat – cultural differences .......................................................................................... 62
Chapter 5 – Interpretation & Analysis ................................................................................64
5.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................64
5.2 Interpretation............................................................................................................................................64
5.3 Threats to police legitimacy ....................................................................................................................66
Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 66
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 73
5.4 Threats to police safety ............................................................................................................................74
Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 74
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 78
5.5 Threats to public safety............................................................................................................................79
Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 79
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 82
Chapter 6 – Conclusions .......................................................................................................83
6.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................83
6.2 Research objectives, Summary of findings and Conclusions .............................................................83
6.3 Recommendations....................................................................................................................................84
6.4 Reflection...................................................................................................................................................85
References................................................................................................................................86
Appendices ..............................................................................................................................93
A1. Interview Questions ................................................................................................................................93
A2. Pictures for reference ..............................................................................................................................95
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Abbreviations & terminology
ARV
Armed Response Vehicle
CED
Conductive Electronic Device (such as a TASER)
CPTED
Crime prevention through environmental design
IPCA
Independent Police Complaints Authority (New Zealand)
Met.
The Metropolitan Police
NZPA
New Zealand Police Association
OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OPI
Office of Police Integrity, Victoria, Australia
Pepper spray
Oleoresin capsicum spray (OC spray) or other sprays
SbC
Suicide by Cop
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Figures & Tables
Figure 1: Qualitative Analysis Process, source: Biggam ..................................................................................27
Figure 2: Trust in European Police Forces 2004, ranking from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest), taken from the
2004 Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International.................................33
Figure 3: Man with machete................................................................................................................................39
Figure 4: Attempt to subdue man.......................................................................................................................40
Figure 5: Multiple officers storm and subdue man ..........................................................................................40
Figure 6: Norwegian Police firearm incidents 1990-2007...............................................................................48
Figure 7: Annual average number of incidents where police officers in service have used firearms for
threat or effective fire per million inhabitants, Denmark (1996-2006), Finland (1997-2006),
Norway (1996-2006) and Sweden (1996-2004) ....................................................................................60
Figure 8: Annual average number of deaths by police shooting per million inhabitants (1996-2006) ...61
Figure 9: Factors affecting the relationship between the police and the public ...........................................65
Figure 10: Average Annual Homicide Rates 2003-2008 sourced from United Nations data (Norway,
New Zealand and England do not have routinely armed police forces). ...........................................71
Figure 11: Swedish Police Officers armed with pistol......................................................................................95
Figure 12: MP5 sub-machine gun worn by an English Police officer outside Parliament, London .........95
Table 1: Summary of risk factors found in the literature search ....................................................................21
Table 2: Interviewee demographics....................................................................................................................26
Table 3: Officers present during effective fire incidents..................................................................................49
Table 4: Sweden - Average Yearly Incidents .....................................................................................................55
Table 5: Skåne Incidents - General factors ........................................................................................................56
Table 6: Skåne Incidents - Environmental factors ...........................................................................................57
Table 7: Skåne Incidents - Officer factors .........................................................................................................57
Table 8: Skåne Incidents - Offender factors ......................................................................................................58
Table 9: Risk factors affecting police legitimacy...............................................................................................65
Table 10: Risk factors affecting police safety.....................................................................................................66
Table 11: Risk factors affecting public safety ....................................................................................................66
Table 12: FBI Data of Police Officers Killed......................................................................................................77
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Chapter 1 – Research Project
1.1 Introduction
New Zealand is one of four OECD countries that has a routinely unarmed police force;
officers do not wear a firearm on their hip. While routinely unarmed, the New Zealand Police
is an armed police force. All constabulary officers routinely carry restricted weapons, such as
pepper spray, on their person. But, with the exception of police stationed at international
airports, New Zealand police do not wear firearms as a matter of routine. Instead, they have
the ability to draw firearms should the circumstances dictate. The other OECD countries
include Britain (including the legal jurisdictions of England and Wales, and Scotland), Ireland
and Norway. In 2010, the New Zealand Police Association called for routine arming of police
after nine officers were shot at – two fatally – in the preceding two year period.1
Commentators, parliamentarians and the media have responded negatively to the
Association’s call, suggesting that such a change would be detrimental to the relationship
between the public and police.2 The objective of this research project is to gain an
understanding of the likely effect of the transition to a routinely armed police force on the
relationship between the public and police. The purpose of the research project is not to
discuss the merits of, or need for routinely arming the New Zealand Police. Instead, it has
been designed to help identify potential consequences if the police did become routinely
armed.
The inherent difficulty with the research project is that the majority of the world’s
police are routinely armed, so there are few opportunities to observe or measure a transition
from a routinely unarmed to routinely armed police force. Consequently, there is a lack of
published research on the topic, despite the highly publicised debate or commentary on the
matter. As a consequence the debate outlined in the first part of the literature search is mostly
opinion and not directly reinforced by criminological, social or strategic study, theory, or
evidence. In order to address this gap, the research considers the role of firearms in the police
forces of England and Wales,3 Norway, and Sweden. The New Zealand police are not
routinely armed but have access to firearms should circumstances require them. The
Norwegian police are not routinely armed but carry firearms in patrol vehicles, whereas the
1
New Zealand Police Association, "Police Association Conference Calls for General Arming of Police," Police News November
2010.
2
"Arming Police Not in Public's Interest," The Dominion Post 29 August 2011, Michael Bott, The Police Arms Race
(Wellington 2010), John Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police," Rethinking Crime and Punishment (RECAP) Newsletter
2010, New Zealand Police Association, "Police Minister Collins Tells Conference: This Government Is Right Behind You," Police
News December 2010, New Zealand Police Association, "Labour Lead in Hot Pursuit of Strengthening Failing to Stop Laws,"
Police News December 2010.
3
The policing structure in the United Kingdom is based on legal jurisdictions grouped together as: England and Wales (as one
jurisdiction), Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
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Swedish police are routinely armed. As these two Scandinavian countries are neighbours and
share similar cultural backgrounds they provide an opportunity to understand why there are
differences in approach in relation to arming police forces. The policing jurisdiction of
England and Wales operates on a slightly different model, where only a proportion of officers
may use firearms. Together, the jurisdictions of England and Wales, Norway, and Sweden
provide insights as to how the relationship between the police and the public can be affected
by different approaches to firearms. Information from each jurisdiction has been presented by
using data from field research interviews with criminologists and police, and from published
sources.
This dissertation is presented in six chapters. The remainder of this chapter provides
a discussion of the research and the scope of the project. It includes an overview of written
sources directly relating to the topic, and arguments for and against the routine arming of
police. It also looks at the strategic importance of the police and explores relevant strategic
studies theory. Chapter 2 outlines the research methodology including how data was collected
and analysed. It also comments on the limitations and potential problems with this research.
Chapter 3 discusses the importance of police legitimacy and the public’s sense of trust in the
police, and explores relevant criminological theories. This provides the contextual basis for
the reader to approach the subsequent analysis. Chapter 4 presents case studies of the police
forces of England and Wales, Norway, and Sweden. From here, themes and issues relating to
the research question emerge. In Chapter 5, these themes and issues are grouped into risk
factors that may be relevant to New Zealand, should the police become routinely armed. Risks
are presented in three groups: risks to police legitimacy; risks to police safety; and risks to
public safety. They are examined in terms of their effect on the police-public relationship.
Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation, with a general discussion, recommendations, and
reflections on the research process.
1.2 Building the research question
The objective of this research project is to gain an understanding of the potential effect of the
transition to a routinely armed police force, and how this might alter the relationship between
the public and police in New Zealand. This examination began with two assumptions that (a)
that the relationship between police and public matters and is an important part of policing in
New Zealand; and (b) that there could be a change in the way that the police and public
interact should the police become routinely armed.
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The Strategic Impact of routine arming the New Zealand Police | Dissertation
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But, what are routinely armed police? For the purpose of this thesis, the terminology
is thus defined; routinely armed refers to a police officer that has immediate access to a
firearm, such as a pistol in a holster, or wearing a rifle, on their person at all times whilst on
duty.4 The New Zealand Police possesses firearms and has authority to provide police officers
with firearms on a case-by-case basis; it is therefore an armed organisation. However, the New
Zealand Police is not routinely armed: its individual officers do not have immediate access to
firearms at all times. As Buttle puts it, New Zealand police officers “have a fine tradition of
going amongst the public unarmed”.5 It is important to note that Buttle and some other
commentators occasionally refer to arming the police and regard the New Zealand Police as
being unarmed. However, the researcher takes these references to mean the routine arming of
police, as the New Zealand Police is, strictly speaking, already an armed organisation. Other
New Zealand law enforcement agencies, such as New Zealand Customs Service or Serious
Fraud Office, do not possess firearms, and therefore are unarmed law enforcement
organisations. This highlights the difference between New Zealand Police and other New
Zealand law enforcement agencies; New Zealand police officers do have access to firearms but
are not routinely armed. So, how this might the relationship between the public and police in
New Zealand alter if the New Zealand Police became routinely armed?
1.3 Literature search: arguments for and against routine arming
The debate over whether to routinely arm the New Zealand police has increased significantly
over the past several years due to a series of shootings of police officers. The New Zealand
Police Association is now publicly calling for armament as a response to an increase in
violence directed towards police officers.6 While the issue is also being debated in Britain and
Norway,7 what sets New Zealand apart is that debate has arisen as a result of a concern for
police health and safety: in England and Norway, there has not been the same perceived
decrease in officer safety. Debate there has arisen from the issue of capability, most
prominently to be able to respond to increasingly violent terrorist incidents and the effects of
migration of Eastern-European organised crime.8
4
Johannes Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries," Police Use of Force : A Global Perspective, eds. Joseph B.
Kuhns and Johannes Knutsson (Santa Barbara, Calif. ; Oxford: Praeger, 2010).
5
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police."
6
New Zealand Police Association, Towards a Safer New Zealand: Police and Law & Order Policies for the Future (Wellington:
New Zealand Police Association,, 2011).
7
Nina Berglund, "Police Don't Want to Bear Arms," Views and News from Norway 13 October 2011.
8
Maurice Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force (Bristol: Policy Press, 2011).
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THE NEW ZEALAND VIEW
There has been relatively little research undertaken in New Zealand in response to the 2010
call from the New Zealand Police Association to routinely arm the police. Generally, the
public response has been negative.9 There are two recent, unpublished papers that encapsulate
the commonly expressed reasons against the routine arming of the New Zealand Police.
Auckland criminologist John Buttle and Wellington human rights advocate Michael Bott both
present their arguments in response to the 2010 call from the New Zealand Police Association.
Buttle raises four arguments against routine arming: it will negatively impact on the police’s
ability to ‘police by consent’; it is unnecessary because the police environment is no less safe
than other vocations; it would create an increased danger to the public through an increase in
the number of unlawful deaths or through police error; and it will lead to a unnecessary
increase in the weaponisation of the police.10 Buttle’s paper has not been published as either a
journal article or text, however it does draw upon references from the writings of Ingleton,
Knutsson, Reiner, and Waddington (some of which are explored later in this chapter).11 The
majority of his arguments are drawn from parallels from his previous research into the use of
pepper sprays in England.12 He raises a number of concerns, some of which are explored in
more detail in this dissertation, such as the concern that an increase in the availability of
firearms to police will inevitably lead to an increase of shootings.13 However, one concern
appears less sound and is addressed briefly below. Buttle states that if police should be armed,
then so should other unsafe professions such as taxi drivers. He argues that, like the police,
taxi drivers also deal with intoxicated people and have recently seen a ‘visible’ decrease in
workplace safety. But, as we would not contemplate routinely arming taxi drivers we ought
not to arm the police. This argument fails to take into account the fact taxi drivers are not
employed nor empowered to function as guardians of public safety. It suggests a fundamental
lack of knowledge of the role and purpose of policing.
The opinions of Bott come from a similar position to that of Buttle and highlight a
commonly expressed concern; that arming the police will harm the relationship between the
police and the public.14 In total Bott identifies six issues, two of which are consistent with
Buttle: arming will negatively affect the police’s ability to ‘police by consent’; and arming will
increase the rate of unlawful shootings by police. Other arguments include concerns that
arming police will lead to an inevitable arms race with criminals; that police themselves will
9
"Arming Police Not in Public's Interest."
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police."
11
Roy D. Ingleton, Arming the British Police : The Great Debate (London: Frank Cass, 1997), Robert Reiner, The Politics of the
Police, 3rd ed. (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2000).
12
John Buttle, "The Shift from Defensive to Offensive Policing: Cs Spray and the Use of Force," University of Wales, 2005.
13
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police."
14
Bott, The Police Arms Race.
10
12
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become victims of shooting by their own firearms; that arming with a pistol will not make
police safer as most criminals who use firearms will use a rifle or shotgun; and that arming
will reduce police safety by encouraging an increased sense of capability to confront an armed
opponent, in contrast to the current tactic of withdraw, cordon and contain for armed
specialists to control. Like Buttle’s, Bott’s paper is not published nor are his opinions
referenced or linked to relevant theories. Despite this both Bott and Buttle provide a useful
starting point for helping to identify the concerns of the public in New Zealand.
OTHER KEY SOURCES
There are some other key sources that provide an insight into this debate. Australian
Criminologist Rick Sarre provides insight to the question of routine arming by reflecting on
how armed policing impacts on the community.15 He openly admits that his arguments are
personal views and not formed on an evidenced basis, but his paper has more academic rigor
that Buttle and Bott. His views are consistent with Buttle and Bott in that he considers that
armed police change the manner in which the police and public interact, specifically that this
practice ‘alienates’ the public from the police and negatively impacts of the process of
community policing. This is a concern shared by some politicians in New Zealand. In 2008,
then Green Party MP Keith Locke concluded that routine arming of the New Zealand police
would be disadvantageous, because it would inevitably lead to policing styles common in
America.16 Sarre’s second point is that having routinely armed police suggests that a weaponsbased response is an effective method of resolving conflict. Third, Sarre considers that arming
the police encourages the belief that violence is unpredictable and random, whereas, in his
view, it is not. Sarre’s views are consistent with some of the concerns expressed by Bott and
Buttle; notably the importance of the relationship with the community and fear of an increase
in weaponisation. However, he suggests that the majority of the Australian public and police
believe that the greater number of firearms deployed by police increases the effectiveness of
the police.17 It is curious to note this, especially in light of his proposition that an armed police
officer can alienate the public. Could this mean that despite all the efforts of the police to
embrace the community policing mantra, the latter is inconsistent with the community’s view
of police effectiveness?
15
Rick Sarre, "The Public, the Police and Australian Gun Policy" Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Emoyeni,
Johannesburg, South Africa, 9 October 1996, 1996. http://www.csvr.org.za/wits/papers/papsarre.htm. 1 May 2006
16
Keith Locke, Policing Bill - Third Reading, Parliametrary Debate. 28 August 2008. Opponents to routine arming of police
forces commonly cite the myth of American policing styles in their arguments. Simon Jenkins suggests that possession of
firearms by police encourages “the ‘Hollywood Cop’ police image at the expense of community policing”, see Peter Squires and
Peter Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) 106-07. Also see
references to “Dirty Harry” in Charles Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st Century Societies, 2nd ed. (Annandale:
Federation, 2005) 171-72.
17
Sarre "The Public, the Police and Australian Gun Policy"
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The concerns expressed by Bott, Buttle and Sarre suggest a number of starting points
for research. First, it seems that their arguments are based on the supposition that the police
exist to serve the community. One could see how this might be construed, given the New
Zealand Police’s Strategic Plan. This clearly states the Police vision statement of “Safer
Communities Together”18 and mission statement of “To be a world class Police service
working in partnership with citizens and communities to prevent crime.”19 Yet the
constabulary oath swears allegiance to the sovereign – not the community – as well as to keep
the peace, to prevent offences against the peace and perform the duties of the office according
to law.20 This is commonplace throughout similar Anglo-Saxon constitutional monarchy
jurisdictions, such as England, where much of New Zealand’s constitutional and legal
framework originated. It is therefore very important to establish the function of the police and
whom they represent.
The second point is the presumption that once police become routinely armed with
firearms they will then become lethally armed. This is a commonly held belief even among
members of parliament as former MP Dail Jones remarked in 2008.21 However it should be
noted that the New Zealand Police are already routinely lethally armed; in New Zealand,
police are trained in carotid hold lateral vascular neck restraint techniques, and carry
expandable batons, which can be lethal if used near the neck or head.22 In addition, pepper
spray was introduced into New Zealand in 1997, stab resistant body armour in 2007, and
tasers in 2008.23
BRITISH LITERATURE
Two recent texts summarise a number of key concerns about police use of firearms in
England. Maurice Punch looks at the question of whether a police force should be armed at
all.24 He suggests is that it is inevitable that in an unarmed police jurisdiction there will be less
criminal violence, less armed violence aimed towards the police, and fewer mistakes made by
police with firearms.25 In a routinely armed jurisdiction, there will be more fatal accidents
caused by police through friendly fire incidents or the death of innocent bystanders. In New
18
New Zealand Police, Policing with Confidence, the New Zealand Way: Strategic Plan 2010 (Wellington: New Zealand Police,,
2005), 1.
19
Ibid.
20
Policing Act, No 72 (2008)
21
Dail Jones, Parliametrary Debate. 26 October 2008
22
New Zealand Police, Recruit Defensive Tactics Training (Wellington: The Royal New Zealand Police College, 2006).
23
Marita Broadstock, What Is the Safety of "Pepper Spray" Use by Law Enforcement or Mental Health Service Staff? (2002), Jane
Archibald, Extension to Roll-out Dates of Stab Resistant Body Armour, 2007, New Zealand Police, Available:
https://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/2817.html, 1 August 2011, Patrick Gower, "Broad Confirms Taser Introduction," New
Zealand Herald 28 August 2008.
24
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force.
25
This assumption is based on the authors interpretation of data from Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms
and Armed Response., in that Norwegian police officers were in fact safer than their Swedish counterparts.
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Zealand, the call for routine arming has arisen to address the safety of police officers –
referred to by Squires as the ‘health and safety’ agenda.26 Punch’s claim leads to the
conundrum of which of the two costs is likely to be a greater risk: the deaths of unarmed
police officers where they might have survived if armed, or deaths of innocent people as a
result of police error.
Punch also provides an important insight into the perception of fear experienced by
police officers. This arises out of a discussion about the practicalities of disarming a routinely
armed police force, where he notes that police officers feel safer with a firearm on their belt.27
He also discusses the views of Skolnick when it comes to danger:
A central tenet of the police occupational culture everywhere rests on the perception that
danger is an inherent part of the police officer’s world; and it is unpredictable where and
when an officer may face violence – and from whom.28
On the face of it, this is a compelling reason to provide police officers with any and all forms
of protection they might desire to mitigate unforeseen and unpredictable risks. However the
quote discusses the perception of risk as opposed to actual risk. This is important; the
perception of risk becomes a determinant of any given police response to an incident.
Peter Squires and Peter Kennison look at the contemporary British environment.29
Most significantly, they challenge the view that British Police are unarmed. They look at the
history of use of firearms by the police in England and Wales including the fatal Stockwell
shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and remind us that the police of England and Wales,
despite the nostalgia, are not unarmed – they are semi-armed.30 This is the same for the New
Zealand Police. The forces of New Zealand, and England and Wales have steadily become
increasingly armed; only a small proportion of British police are firearms trained unlike the
New Zealand police where all officers are trained.
CONCLUSION
The literature search proved a useful starting point for further discussion. It shows that there
is not a great deal of research on the risks of routine arming police in New Zealand. While
there have been some responses to the New Zealand Police Association’s call for routine
arming, they have been largely based on conjecture. Notwithstanding this, there are broad
themes or concerns emerging as a result of the debate, including a view that the routine
26
Interviewee 22, Personal Interview. 1 July 2011
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force 71.
28
Jerome Herbert Skolnick, Justice without Trial: Law Enforcement in Democratic Society (New York, etc.: John Wiley & Sons,
1966)., cited in Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force 71.
29
Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response.
30
Ibid.
27
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arming of police would distance the police and the public from each other.
1.4 Literature search: strategic theory
This section focuses on the nature of the relationship between the police and public. The
strategic nature of the relationship can be understood in two, equally useful ways; that the role
of policing is significantly important within society, and therefore strategically important to
the maintenance of modern society; and that as police are authorised to utilise force, their
actions can be viewed in terms of a strategic studies context, in particular utilising existing
military strategic theory.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE POLICE AND THE PUBLIC
There are numerous sources devoted to police theory, highlighting the importance of policing
in society. Alan Wright provides a useful set of comparative policing models (civil police, state
police, quasi-military police, and martial law)31 which helps to qualify the degree of military
involvement in policing. Authors such as David Bayley,32 Robert Reiner,33 and P.A.J.
Waddington,34 are particularly instructive sources on police function throughout history and
the evolution of police in western societies. Their common view is that relationships between
the police and public can vary even in countries with similar constitutional histories. For
instance, in 1829 Sir Robert Peel established London’s Metropolitan Police under the guise of
the ‘modern police’. This was a significant turning point in policing history; Peel created a
specialised civilian police force separate from the military in structure and appearance. Yet,
Peel’s police of England and Wales differed from the colonial police forces of Australia, India,
Ireland, and New Zealand (the last managed as an extension of the colonial New South Wales
police).35 Like European gendarmeries, these colonial police forces had a military function to
maintain order over a conquered territory which is clearly at odds with policing in ‘free’
England and Wales. This distinction is still evident today; compare the policing styles of New
Zealand with that of Northern Ireland, both descendents of British policing traditions. In
Northern Ireland, during 1970-2000, police worked closely with intelligence agencies and the
31
Alan Wright, Policing : An Introduction to Concepts and Practice (Cullompton: Willan, 2002).
David H. Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Crime, Law, and Deviance Series (New
Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1985).
33
Robert Reiner, The Politics of the Police, 4th ed. (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2010).
34
P.A.J. Waddington, Policing Citizens : Authority and Rights (London: UCL Press, 1999).
35
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Reiner, The Politics of the Police, Waddington, Policing
Citizens : Authority and Rights.
32
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military to suppress terrorism originating from the republican movement.36 As a consequence,
policing in Northern Ireland by the Royal Ulster Constabulary became highly militarised,
evidenced in a highly armed police operating in armoured patrol vehicles, tactics still used
today by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (the RUC’s successor).37 The New Zealand
police, on the other hand, are highly civilianised and do not patrol in armoured vehicles.
Thus, while police have power over the public in any state, the amount of power will vary
according to individual countries’ national needs, priorities and histories.
Regardless of the degree of power the police have, they stand apart from most other
branches of government in that police officers are empowered to use force in order to fulfil
their mandate. Some other government agencies have limited enforcement powers, such as
customs, immigration or correctional officers, but it is the police who are empowered to use
force in their day-to-day dealings with the public. Egon Bittner most eloquently outlines this:
What the existence of police makes available in society is a unique and powerful capacity
to cope with all kinds of emergencies … rushing to the scene of any crisis whatever, judging
its needs in accordance with canons of common sense reasoning, and imposing solutions
upon it without regard to resistance or opposition. In all this they act largely as individual
practitioners of a craft …. The policeman, and the policeman alone, is equipped, entitled
and required to deal with every exigency in which force may have to be used to meet it.38
Bittner’s view is extensively referenced in modern texts on police practice and widely accepted
as an instructive view of the police function.39 Jones takes Bittner’s view one step further;
while Bittner considers force in a physical sense Jones argues that police use of force extends
to non-contact force.40 Described as ‘physical constraints policing’ he shows how non-contact
tactics such as police cordons, police skirmish lines or even physically moving barriers, are
used by police to prevent movement.41 No other agency has the widespread power or mandate
to control the public through the use of force as the police do.
While Bittner articulates the niceness factor of policing, that the police officer is there
to help, to intervene, to ‘save the day’, Waddington reminds us that policing can be viewed as
an exercise of state control of the population.42 While those living in free democratic states
36
David John Smith, "New Challenges to Police Legitimacy," Transformations of Policing, eds. David John Smith and Alistair
Henry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
37
Street Wars, Raw Cut TV, 2005.
38
Egon Bittner, "Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of the Police," Policing Key Readings, ed. Tim
Newburn (Devon: Willan Publishing, 1974) 35.
39
Waddington, Policing Citizens : Authority and Rights.
40
Richard Jones, "The Architecture of Policing: Towards a New Theoretical Model of the Role of Constraint-Based Compliance
in Policing," Transformations of Policing, eds. David John Smith and Alistair Henry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
41
Ibid.
42
Waddington, Policing Citizens : Authority and Rights.
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may balk at this, consider the writings of Belur. She comments that the size of the population
of India requires the state to maintain control to keep order.43
However, while the police have the potential to use force they don’t always exercise
their right to use it.44 It is this discretionary characteristic that differentiates police from the
rank-and-file subordinated systems of a disciplined military. It is the role of the police,
therefore, to balance the conflict between maintaining social order and enforcing the law. On
the one hand, the police are deployed, they need to maintain a functional working
relationship with the public to keep the peace and maintain social order. On the other hand,
they also must exercise authority to enforce the law. This can lead to difficulties. For example,
at a neighbourhood ruckus, such as a loud gathering of people socialising at 3am, the role of
the police in this case is to appeal to the homeowner to ‘rein in’ the party. The owner agrees
based on the manner in which the police have proposed the request or if they have built
sufficient rapport. The next day, the police find evidence that the same person is involved in a
burglary and arrest him. It is this dichotomy that characterises the difficulty of the
relationship between the police and the public.
The police, therefore, have very important roles to fill in society, but are they
strategically important? Mark Neocleous provides a useful insight, quoting an observation of
English rule of India by James Fitzjames Stephens in 1883, that “the English in India are the
representatives of peace compelled by force”.45 Neocleous explains, “the peace of civilisation
involves the transformation rather than elimination of violence”.46 In other words, the people
delegate their ‘use of force’ to the state. This is consistent with social contract theory; the
public delegate to the state their right to use violence in the same manner as they delegate
other rights to the state to form government.47 Moll discusses this link in an exploration of
police ethics and legitimacy.48
STRATEGIC THEORY
The use of force is a much-studied topic in the fields of criminological and strategic studies;
criminology tends to view the world in terms of police and crime, while the strategic studies
discipline focuses on the science of military conflict and war. In terms of criminology, most
focus is on police use of force in terms of police legitimacy, excessive force and specialist
43
Jyoti Belur, Permission to Shoot? : Police Use of Deadly Force in Democracies (New York: Springer, 2010), Interviewee 21,
Personal Interview. 30 June 2011
44
Waddington, Policing Citizens : Authority and Rights.
45
Mark Neocleous, "The Police of Civilization: The War on Terror as Civilizing Offensive," International Political Sociology 5.2
(2011).
46
Ibid.
47
Monica Moll, Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles
(Urbana, I.L.: Forum on Public Policy, 2006).
48
Ibid.
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tactics. While instructive from a tactical perspective criminologists tend not to address the
strategic aspect of use of force. In contrast, the discussion of military use of force provides a
conceptual framework to understand the effect of force in competitive environments, such as
between two warring parties, or how the coercive potential use of force can prevent the actual
use of force (such as the Cold War).
Freedman outlines Michael Howard’s discussion of the strategic approach (first
published in 1968) in an essay looking at power in the strategic environment. He begins his
discussion with Howard’s definition:
The strategic approach is … one which takes account of the part played by force, or the
threat of force in the international system. It is descriptive in so far as it analyses the
extent to which political units have the capacity to use, or to threaten the use of armed
force to impose their will on other units; whether to compel them to do some things, to
deter them from doing others, or if need be to destroy them as independent communities
altogether.49
This definition is instructive, especially in terms of drawing comparisons, or assessing the
usefulness of applying strategic studies thinking to the research question. Like Bittner,
Howard considers the utility of the use of force, and threat of force.50 Freedman observes that
power obviates the need to use force in order for the sub-ordinate actor to yield to the superordinate.51 He also goes on to state that ‘strategic power’ becomes a ‘coercive capacity’, which
is the “the capacity to use violence for the protection, enforcement or extension of
authority.”52
While there is an obvious link between Bittner and Freedman, the convergence of the
military and the police function is a politically charged topic. As previously discussed, most
Anglo-Saxon societies have separated the military and police functions to create a civilianised
police.53 Nevertheless, policing and military functions are blurring. Greener looks at the
blurring of police and military functions in unstable states such as the military ‘peacekeeping
roles’ mandated by the United Nations at the end of the 20th Century, and international
deployment of one nation’s police force into another, such as the RAMSI deployment in the
Solomon Islands:
49
Michael Howard, Causes of Wars : And Other Essays, 2nd ed. (London: Temple Smith Ltd, 1983)., cited in Lawrence Freedman,
"Srategic Studies and the Problem of Power," Strategic Studies: A Reader, eds. Thomas G. Mahnken and Joseph A. Maiolo
(Oxford: Routledge, 2008) 22.
50
One must remember, however, that a military operation has the potential to result in destruction of an object, as outlined by
Howard. This is not the general case in policing; the goal would be removal of the opponent from the environment, except in the
direst of circumstances.
51
Freedman, "Srategic Studies and the Problem of Power."
52
Ibid., 24.
53
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
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…[I]n terms of more conceptual differences, the military are very much agents of the
government whilst police are primarily agents of the courts and the law. Thus although the
military is an instrument for furthering the external political and strategic goals of the
day, police forces are in and of themselves an actual physical and conceptual embodiment
of the political and social values of each society.54
Notwithstanding these differences, the police and military both have the ability to legitimately
use force within their day-to-day operations. Salt and Smith explore this link and consider
how Clausewitzian theory can be applied to policing environment.55 They observe parallels in
Clausewitz’s discussion of the utility of coercive force with the views of Bittner. While the
degree of utility differs – the military utilises the principle of maximisation of force where the
police adopt the principle of the minimisation of force56 – they show a clear link in the
thinking that both the military and police can use their coercive potential as a deterrent and a
modifier of behaviour. Mawby and Wright refer to this as the “paradox of police
governance”57 which is considered here by Alphert and Dunham:
There is one profession in the Western society … that has not only retained the right to use
physical force against its citizens, but has its members trained and encouraged to do so.
The police are prepared to use force on a daily basis and while there may be considerable
pressure to limit and restrict the use of force by the police against citizens, no one is calling
for them to abandon its use. Indeed it would be unconscionable to make such a demand.58
Despite the level of force used (or threatened to be used) the coercive potential is a shared
element of military and police operations. However, the level of force used has to be
proportionate to the level of opposition proposed. If the level becomes disproportionate, then
the legitimacy can be called into question. This is an issue addressed by Fisher. He observed,
in America, an increasingly reliance by police on paramilitarised police units, such as SWAT
teams, since the late 1960s.59 This is rooted in the increasing perception of danger in executing
drug search warrants, as well as terrorist threats. Fisher’s concern is that this type of policing
results in threats to police legitimacy through the display and deployment of excessive force.60
A decline of legitimacy will alter the police-public relationship in a way that would not affect a
military encounter.61
54
Beth K. Greener, The New International Policing, Global Issues Series (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) 104.
James Salt and M.L.R. Smith, "Reconciling Policing and Military Objectives: Can Clausewitzian Theory Assist the Police Use of
Force in the United Kingdom?," Democracy and Security 4.3 (2008).
56
Ibid.
57
Rob Mawby and Alan Wright, Police Accountability on the United Kingdom (Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, 2004).
58
Geoffrey P. Alpert and Roger G. Dunham, Understanding Police Use of Force : Officers, Suspects, and Reciprocity (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004).
59
Jim Fisher, Swat Madness and the Militarization of the American Police: A National Dilemma (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010).
60
Ibid.
61
Alpert and Dunham, Understanding Police Use of Force : Officers, Suspects, and Reciprocity.
55
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Bittner, Alphert and Dunham consider the coercive potential of police ability to use
force in terms of a specific event or incident. However Salt and Smith, like Waddington, take a
broader view that the police’s primary concern is the rule of law that governs the affairs of the
state62 and therefore the police use of force is to control society:
‘the activity of policing represents the means by which to achieve the political end, and
since the police institution is designated by the state for this purpose, the police
subsequently constitute the strategic means’.63
Once again, this encourages consideration of the role of the police in society and raises the
question of who ‘owns’ the police. Are the police appointed by society, through a social
contract, to regulate society64 or do the police regulate society on behalf of the sovereign?65
The birth of Peel’s new police in London of the 19th Century was clearly a delegation of power
and became the policing model in other free states such as in New Zealand (after the
dissolution of the armed constabulary in 1878).66 The reverse can be seen in the colonial
policing of Northern Ireland, India and other colonies, where law was imposed over a
conquered populace. Salt and Smith, like Moll, describe the effect of the former as a social
contract between the state and the individual: the individual exchanges liberty in exchange for
freedom and security67 and provided that the police do not exceed their ambit, the individual
consents to be policed. The minimum use of force, and other measures of acceptability, form
police legitimacy.
CONCLUSION
The literature indicates the different roles that the military and police have in society. Both
have a legitimate right to use coercive force to achieve their objectives. The relationship
between the police and public is of strategic importance; in strong democratic states, the social
contract between citizenry and government relies on the consent of the public to be policed.
62
Salt and Smith, "Reconciling Policing and Military Objectives: Can Clausewitzian Theory Assist the Police Use of Force in the
United Kingdom?," 227.
63
Ibid.
64
Moll, Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles.
65
Waddington, Policing Citizens : Authority and Rights.
66
Dilip K. Das and Michael Palmiotto, Policing in Canada, India, Germany, Australia, Finland, and New Zealand : A
Comparative Research Study (Lewiston, N.Y. ; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005).
67
Salt and Smith, "Reconciling Policing and Military Objectives: Can Clausewitzian Theory Assist the Police Use of Force in the
United Kingdom?," 226.
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1.5 Emerging Issues
While the literature is mostly silent on how a transition to a routinely armed police force
might effect the police-public relationship, there are a number of strongly expressed concerns
that suggest it would have a negative effect. The views of Bott, Buttle and Sarre in particular
provide a useful starting point to explore how people think the relationship between the
public and police might change. These issues are listed below in Table 1.
Table 1: Summary of risk factors found in the literature search
ISSUE
SOURCE
Routine arming will negatively impact on the police’s ability to ‘police by consent’;
Buttle, Bott
Frustration of process of community policing rather than policing by consent;
Sarre
The drive for arming has come from the NZ Police Association on the basis that policing has
become less safe, but this is not the case, the environment is no less safe than other work
environments;
Buttle
An increased danger to the public through an increased number of unlawful deaths (police
mistakes);
Buttle, Bott, Punch
Arming leads to a unnecessary increase in weaponisation of the police;
Buttle
Arming leads to an inevitable arms race with those who oppose the police;
Bott
Police themselves will become victims of shooting by their own weapon;
Bott
Arming with a pistol will not make police safer as most criminals who use firearms will use a
rifle or shotgun;
Bott
Arming will give the officer an increase sense of capability to confront an armed opponent in
contrast to the current NZ;
Bott
Routinely armed police suggests that weapons-based response is an effective method of
resolving conflict;
Sarre
Arming encourages the belief that violence is unpredictable and random, where in his view, it is
not.
Sarre
Several issues have emerged through the literature that may help to clarify the
dynamics of the police-public relationship. The first is to explore the role of the police. While
there is a consistent view that the police have a controlling function in society, there is a range
of views as to whom the police ultimately act for. The police could exist to serve society by
controlling the population for the benefit of society or it could purely control society for the
benefit of the state or sovereign. An understanding of police legitimacy and how the public
consents to being policed would be useful to this discussion. The second is to further
understand the similarities, and differences, between the police and the military. Both
institutions rely on force to achieve their objectives yet use force to differing degrees.
However, there was been a blurring of roles in over the past 30 years. The military has become
increasingly involved in civil policing, through ‘peace-keeping’ missions. The police have
become increasingly militarised in civil policing, whether through the increased deployment
22
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of militarised units such as SWAT teams to respond to violent incidents, or through the
increasing number of weapons available to police officers.
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Chapter 2 – Research Methods
2.1 Introduction
This chapter outlines the research process chosen to address how the police-public
relationship might change if the New Zealand police became routinely armed. The previous
chapter has established that some commentators predict that arming the police will lead to a
different style of policing. There is very little empirical research in New Zealand to test these
predictions. This dissertation addresses that research gap by expanding on identifiable factors
and testing them through a case study approach outside of New Zealand. Norway and Sweden
were selected as they offer the unique potential for comparison between unarmed and armed
police (respectively) while sharing a common cultural heritage. Their policing styles are more
closely aligned with Anglo-Saxon traditions than those from continental Europe.68 English
Law policing (the jurisdiction of England and Wales69) was also selected for a case study; its
forces are routinely unarmed and are often seen as the exemplar of unarmed policing and
their forces also have a strong influence on the New Zealand Police.70 The remainder of this
chapter details how the research data was collected and the theory underpinning the analysis
process. It also comments on potential limitations of the research method and how these have
been mitigated.
2.2 Research Strategy
To address the lack of information available this dissertation sets out to identify factors that
might affect the police-public relationship, assess whether they would be applicable in the
New Zealand context, and measure the level of long-term risk to the police-public
relationship. This approach reflects the researcher’s view that the understanding of social
interaction is best explored through an interpretative perspective.71 As such, a case study
method has been chosen to identify and test the research findings; to identify ‘risk factors’ and
68
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Derek Lutterbeck, "Between Police and Military: The New
Security Agenda and the Rise of Gendarmeries," Cooperation and Conflict 39.1 (2004).
69
The United Kingdom consists of four counties: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland
have separate legal systems, and policing traditions, where England and Wales share the same legal system and policing tradition.
70
Bott, The Police Arms Race, Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police.", Locke, Policing Bill - Third Reading, Parliametrary
Debate.
71
Orlikiwski and Baroudi systemised three categories of qualitative research epistemology (in W. J. Orlikowski and J. J. Baroudi,
"Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions," Information Systems Research 2.1
(1991). cited by John Biggam, Succeeding with Your Master's Dissertation : A Step-by-Step Handbook (Maidenhead: McGrawHill/Open University Press, 2008). These include a positivist view, where the researcher believes that a reality exists objectively,
such as an inherent truth, a critical view, where the researcher believes the reality is based on historical events and that people are
consciously and unconsciously influenced by social, cultural and political circumstances, and the interpretative view that there is
no one objective reality, that the world can be viewed through a variety of viewpoints and experiences.
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then test them to determine whether they will lead to a change in the relationship. Bailey
suggests that comparative case studies, especially those focusing on cross-national study, have
substantial benefits for the study of criminal justice issues.72
The researcher has chosen to define ‘risk factors’ as opinions that may risk a change to
the police-public relationship but are not proven to be the case either way. For example, some
of the arguments of Buttle and Bott are unsubstantiated opinion but could be indicative of
change. ‘Change factors’, on the other hand, are factors that research suggests are likely to
cause change. The purpose of the case studies is to explore each country, identify risk factors,
and apply theory, derived from a wider literature search on relevant topics and contextualised
in findings from interviewees, to determine the change factors. The choice of countries is
significant to the likely benefit of the study.73 Eisenhardt recommends, “it makes sense to
choose cases such as extreme situations and polar types in which the process of interest is
transparently observable”.74 The comparative study Norway and Sweden fits perfectly; the
Swedish police are routinely armed yet the Norwegian police are not.
Case studies are considered to form part of a qualitative approach; Bell states, “that
researchers adopting a qualitative perspective are more concerned to understand individuals’
perception of the world.”75 Although the factors identified by Bott, Buttle and Sarre lack the
rigour of critical or evidential-based analysis, they represent the common fears of the
community in an attempt to interpret the proposition. They are therefore valid as they are
indicative of the public’s perception of the issue. The case study process is an appropriate
process to explore these fears as they arise from both an individual’s perspective as well as
representing a common viewpoint. It enables actual experience of practitioners and research
of criminologists to be applied to test the common fears. The nature of the research strategy is
two-fold, first to identify risk factors and second to analyse each factor’s probative value to
determine if it qualifies as a change factor.
The first phase of the research process included the identification of risk factors using
the following: published literature specifically addressing the topic and opinion from
commentators; comparative case study of policing in Norway and Sweden; and a case study of
English Law policing. The choice not to survey respondents from New Zealand is deliberate. It
is the researcher’s view that critical debate on this matter in New Zealand is at its infancy,
unlike the case of England or Norway, and the likelihood of insight is slim. The most
72
In particular, comparative case studies allow for: (1) extending knowledge of alternative possibilities; (2); developing more
powerful insights into human behaviour; (3) increasingly the likelihood of successful reform; and (4) gaining perspective on
ourselves as human beings. Quoted from David H. Bayley, "Policing: The World Stage," Policing across the World : Issues for the
Twenty-First Century, ed. Rob I. Mawby (London: UCL Press, 1999) 6.
73
Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, "Building Theories from Case Study Reserach," The Academy of Management Review 14.4 (1989).
74
Ibid., 537.
75
Judith Bell, Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science
(Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005).
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appropriate method to gain a deeper understanding of the opinions of New Zealander public
would be through a quantitative survey process, which sits outside the scope of this paper.
The examination and analysis of each risk factor will be presented in Chapter 5. Each
risk factor is assessed on its merits to determine whether it is likely to be a change factor
relevant in New Zealand and if it will affect the police-public relationship. The exploration of
each issue through practical and conceptual approaches therefore brings a greater validity; a
common view from both perspectives increases the probability that it is a change factor that
will affect the relationship.76
2.3 Data Collection
Case studies have been constructed from information gathered from available literature, and
interviews with criminologists and policing practitioners in each jurisdiction.77 The value in
interviewing criminologists is to gain a theoretical perspective balancing criminological
theory with localised policing or crime pressures – for instance why are the Swedish police
armed and the Norwegian police unarmed? The inclusion of police practitioners is equally
important. Many of the risk factors identified in Chapter 1 are linked to the demeanour or
actions of officers in that they may react differently when they are armed. Having a practical
understanding of these issues helps to keep balance. It is also important to include
practitioners’ views to avoid the study being deemed irrelevant by police. The relationship
between criminologists and police is not always functional with the latter considering the
former as ‘arm-chair’ critics and also with distrust.78 The case studies omit the survey of the
general public for reasons of practicality; to do so would require a different study with greater
resources. It is the researcher’s assumption that the survey of practitioners and criminologists
will provide the opportunity to gather representative views.
The planned sample size was to range from six to nine people across each jurisdiction,
resulting in 18-27 participants.79 A total of 41 candidates were approached to participate in the
interview process. They were identified through cited authors located during the literature
search, and referrals from police unions in each jurisdiction. There was also an intention to
identify activists or human rights workers however ultimately candidates from these areas did
76
Eisenhardt, "Building Theories from Case Study Reserach."
Eisenhardt suggests that case studies typically consist of data collected from a variety of sources. These can include interviews,
observations, questionnaires and archival searches. See ibid., 534.
78
Johannes Knutsson, "Nordic Reflections on the Dialogue of the Deaf," Police Practice and Research 11.2 (2010).
79
Initial research approval and ethics approval was sought to cover 30-45 people across five different jurisdictions. The resultant
sample size was smaller due to a refinement of the research strategy, the number of jurisdictions decreased to three resulting in a
target sample size of 18-27 participants.
77
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not participate. Ultimately, a total of 25 participants agreed to participate. Table 2 below
shows the demographic breakdown of localities and type of interviewee:
Table 2: Interviewee demographics
JURISDICTION
SITE
CRIMINOLOGISTS
POLICE
PRACTITIONERS
COMBINED
England & Wales
Brighton, London, Shropshire,
& Wellington (NZ)
6
7
13
Norway
Oslo
3
3
6
Sweden
Stockholm
1
7
8
10
17
27
The total sample size of 27 reflects that some criminologists had expertise in multiple
jurisdictions. The interviews consisted of a structured interview format using a set of
consistent questions for all interviewees.80 The questions were aimed at gleaning the
interviewee’s personal opinions as well as their perceptions of the wider public opinion. The
interview format also allowed time for free discussion, which created opportunities for
exploration of related literature not directly addressing the research question. Each interview
was conducted in person, in Brighton, London, Oslo, Shropshire, Stockholm, and Wellington
(two English ex-patriots). They were electronically recorded to give the interview an intimate
setting. Each interview was transcribed and each interviewee given the opportunity to check
the transcription for accuracy. The interviews were conducted in confidence.81 Note that for
many of the interviewees, English is a second language. Quotes from interviews are verbatim
except where marked with square brackets.
2.4 Framework for analysis
The method for analysis relied on the assumption that the likelihood of a risk factor emerging
as a change factor in New Zealand will be proportionate to the existence of the problem in the
test jurisdictions of England and Wales, Norway, and Sweden. It is accepted that there are
cultural differences between England and Wales, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden.
However, these countries share similar policing histories which are quite distinct from those
of Continental Europe or North America.82 The police of most European countries follow
80
Refer to the Appendix for the ‘proposed set of questions’ used with interviewees.
The interview process was approved by the Human Ethics Committee, Victoria University of Wellington.
82
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Lutterbeck, "Between Police and Military: The New Security
Agenda and the Rise of Gendarmeries.", P.A.J. Waddington, "Armed and Unarmed Policing," Policing across the World, ed. Rob I.
Mawby (London: UCL Press Limited, 1999).
81
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gendarmerie models and are different to the traditions of liberal Anglo-Saxon policing.83 The
English and Scandinavian police are similar as they have more civilian characteristics and
follow the ‘policing by consent’ approach.84 Given that a number of the risk factors noted by
Bott, Buttle and Sarre question the impact of routine arming on policing styles such as
‘policing by consent’, and fears of increasing militarization, it is believed that evaluating risk
factors in Norwegian, Swedish and English contexts will provide a close measure of their
likelihood to affect New Zealand.
The qualitative analysis process used to analyse the case studies is based on the
iterative approach of description, analysis and interpretation detailed by Wolcott and
Biggam.85 This process suggests that raw data can be grouped into themes or groups to assist
with interpretation, as Figure 1 shows below:86
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2034#/()!+5%+6-7
'$()&*!"&+!*$!*,)*#$
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Figure 1: Qualitative Analysis Process, source: Biggam
Once the data from the case studies, interviews and literature was grouped into themes it was
considered in the New Zealand context.
2.5 Limitations and potential problems
There are some limitations to this research method and process. The collected data is
interpretative – it is the subjective views and opinions of a small group of experts. Whilst it is
the researcher’s intention to use the collected data to form a representative view of the issues,
there are dangers in believing that case studies can lead to the formation of valid
83
Lutterbeck, "Between Police and Military: The New Security Agenda and the Rise of Gendarmeries."
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Interviewee 8, Personal Interview. 17 June 2011, Knutsson,
"Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries.", Interviewee 3, Personal Interview. 14 June 2011
85
Harry F. Wolcott, Transforming Qualitative Data : Description, Analysis, and Interpretation (Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; London:
Sage, 1994)., cited in Biggam, Succeeding with Your Master's Dissertation : A Step-by-Step Handbook, ibid.
86
Biggam, Succeeding with Your Master's Dissertation : A Step-by-Step Handbook.
84
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generalisations.87 Notwithstanding, the case study approach does offer a process which can fit
within the scope of this research project. A number of opinions have been collected on the
same issue; this ensures that analysis is not dependant on the views only one or two
respondents.
In addition, there is the possibility that criticism might be levelled that the research
data is biased towards police practitioners; Table 2 (p.26) shows that there are almost twice as
many practitioners interviewed than criminologists. The numerical disparity is less relevant
when the data is considered as a whole. When the existing literature is taken into account
together with human sources there is a greater balance. There is a lack of data from human
rights orientated organisations (although some criminologists identified themselves as being
sympathetic to such causes) and activist groups holding negative views of the police. Seven of
the 16 participants who declined to be interviewed were approached because of their
affiliation with human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International. One explanation
for the unwillingness to participate could be because of the researcher’s position as a serving
New Zealand police officer.
The case study countries do not have similar relationships with indigenous peoples as
New Zealand does. For instance, the New Zealand Police features the commitment to Maori
and the Treaty of Waitangi as a core value of the organisation.88 However, despite the fact that
the New Zealand Police is founded on Anglo-Saxon traditions, it embraces the same ‘policing
by consent’ model which influences the other case study jurisdictions.89 As such, the New
Zealand Police has to be sensitive to the needs of all cultures that it polices in order to
maintain and build consent. In terms of the research then, it is the researcher’s view that the
level and type of ethnic diversity becomes less important than the ability for each police force
to interact with the total population.
It should also be noted that the field interviews in England, Norway and Sweden
occurred before the tragic events in Oslo during July 2011.
87
Ibid., 167.
New Zealand Police, Policing with Confidence, the New Zealand Way: Strategic Plan 2010.
89
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Interviewee 8, Personal Interview, Interviewee 3, Personal
Interview, Interviewee 20, Personal Interview. 28 June 2011
88
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Chapter 3 – Research findings: broader theory
This chapter explores a number of themes identified in the initial literature. The first section
provides a background of how policing has evolved: how civilian and military traditions have
shaped police characteristics. The second section explores policing in terms of legitimacy,
policing by consent, and community policing. It is intended that this will provide insights for
analysing the data revealed in the case studies.
3.1. Understanding policing: public and specialist policing roles
Bayley understands police to mean “people authorised by a group to regulate interpersonal
relations with the group through the application of force”.90 Bittner agrees, but suggests that
while force does not have to be actually used or threatened to affect behaviour, it is implicit
whenever the members of the police group interact with the non-police group.91 Therefore,
the fact that force could be used is the motivating factor for the non-police group to
acquiesce.92
The concept of policing has evolved over time, and has developed differently in
different parts of the globe. Amongst western countries, the evolution can be mapped in two
ways. The first is the transformation into a ‘public’ police system, when the police function
becomes authorised, controlled and funded by the state. The second, specialisation, occurs at
varying rates, as policing functions outweigh other functions, such as tax collection or a
military function. Some of the earliest documented evidence of existence of ‘public’ police can
be sourced to the Roman Empire circa 27 B.C.93 In Roman times, policing was first
documented during the reign of Octavian; when he took the name Augustus he also became
princeps and took charge of the civil administration of Rome from the senate.94 He created the
preafectus urbi (urban prefect) and the first ‘chief of police’, the preafectus vigilium, to police
Rome, paid directly by the state.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the functions and administration of policing were
increasingly delegated away from state control and funding.95 The English created
decentralised police officials, including sheriffs, constables and justices of the peace. The
‘sheriff’ was a public police official, created by the Norman kings in the 12th century. It acted
on behalf of the sovereign, but was funded indirectly through an appropriation of moneys
90
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis 7.
Bittner, "Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of the Police."
92
Ibid.
93
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
94
Ibid.
95
Ibid.
91
30
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collected in the king’s name.96 By 1285, the ‘constable’ had been established under the feudal
‘Frankplegde’ system (where households were collectively responsible for paying a surety to
their Lord). The constable acted as an agent of the sheriff and regulated other local
functionaries. When the Frankpledge system evaporated in the 15th century, the constable
took over the role of the tything-man and became accountable to the parish; elected on an
annual basis and accountable to the parish justice of the peace.97 The constable remained the
executive agent of law acting on behalf of the king but not funded from the royal purse.98
Policing remained decentralised in this manner until the mid-18th century. A trial was
conducted in London during 1735 when several parishes were granted permission to pay the
night-watch from local taxes. There are, as well, further examples of parishes and magistrates
experimenting with funding systems.99 The parish system continued to evolve until the
‘modernisation’ of English policing by Peel in the 1820s.
Bayley observes that the English ‘specialised’ police official was established 700
hundred years before it become ‘public’.100 This long history explains why there are strongly
held views about England’s role in the importance and tradition of civilianised policing; the
person fulfilling the role focuses solely on policing and is not linked to any militarised
structure. This is a defining characteristic of English policing and is a point of differentiation
of gendarmerie policing traditions in Continental Europe. When policing is seen as a state
function separate from the military, such as in England, one can understand why there is a
level of unease about increasing para-militarisation. In Anglo-Saxon countries, important
constitutional rules prohibit the use of the state’s military forces in domestic affairs. Police
forces do have the ability to co-opt segments of the armed forces during emergencies, most
commonly natural disasters, but also for hostage negotiation and rescue.101 But care is needed
when deploying military elements especially in countries with a routinely unarmed police
force as for many, the firearm is a symbol or fear, control and militarization.
In contrast to Anglo-Saxon policing, European policing was public far before it
became specialised. For instance, the French sergeant, established around the same time as the
English constable, had dual policing and military functions.102 In Scandinavia, Denmark,
Norway and Sweden the lensmen was the agent who enforced laws at the local level and
96
William J. Bopp and Donald O. Schultz, A Short History of American Law Enforcement (Springfield, Ill.: Thomas, 1972)., cited
in Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
97
Metropolitan Police, History of the Metropolitan Police, 2011, Available: http://www.met.police.uk/history/definition.htm,
9/10/2011 2011.
98
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
99
Ibid.
100
Ibid.
101
Fisher, Swat Madness and the Militarization of the American Police: A National Dilemma, P.A.J. Waddington and Martin
Wright, "Police Use of Guns in Unarmed Countries: The United Kingdom," Police Use of Force : A Global Perspective, eds. Joseph
B. Kuhns and Johannes Knutsson (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010).
102
Joseph R. Strayer, On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State, A Princeton Classic Edition, 1st Princeton classic ed.
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005)., cited in Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
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collected taxes for the king.103 By the 18th century, European cities established their own royal
police, notably with the appointment of ‘police chiefs’ in St. Petersburg in 1718, Berlin in
1742, Vienna in 1751 and Paris in 1760.104 The message is clear: western policing evolved at
differing rates throughout England, Europe and Scandinavia, and forces served different
functions. The absence, or removal, of the military from the maintenance of domestic order
marks an important defining point for police. While the gendarmerie style became more
prevalent in Europe the English maintained a civilian specialised police.105
3.2 Contemporary Policing Issues
A number of the fears identified in the literature concern the impact of routine arming on
police practices such as community policing. There are also suggestions that it can impact on
police legitimacy and consent. The purpose of this section is to define these concepts.
POLICE LEGITIMACY & TRUST
Finnish researcher Juha Kääriäinen provides us with a useful way to understand the policepublic relationship through legitimacy. Kääriäinen suggests that legitimacy is a combination
of public trust, and belief in the current policing system.106 Punch suggests that for the
English, legitimacy can be expressed through public consent:
Consent is based upon the exercise of legitimate authority and if the public doubts that
legitimacy it can revoke consent.107
Legitimacy in policing does not fully rely on universal appreciation.108 A large amount of
police work involves working with quarrelling parties and the nature of this process
sometimes results in a resolution favouring one of the parties. Reiner suggests that legitimacy
does not rely on unanimous acceptance of police decisions, but for legitimacy to exist, the
majority of society must accept the lawful authority and the right of the police to do ‘what
103
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
Donald Eugene Emerson and Clemens Wenzeslaus Nepomuk Lothar von Prince Appendix Metternich-Winneburg,
Metternich and the Political Police. Security and Subversion in the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1815-1830 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff,
1968), L. Radzinowicz, A History of English Criminal Law and Its Administration from 1750 (London: Stevens & Sons Limited,
1948)., cited in Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
105
During the first half of the 19th-Century, states increasingly adopted the gendarmerie style of policing where the military served
a dual policing (domestic) and military (external) role. Bayley points to this occurring in the following countries: Prussia in 1812;
Piedmont in 1816; Netherlands in 1814; Spain in 1844; and Austria in 1849.
106
Juha Tapio Kääriäinen, "Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries: A Multilevel Analysis," European Journal of Criminology
4.4 (2007), Juha Tapio Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?," Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and
Crime Prevention 9.2 (2008).
107
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force 183.
108
Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
104
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they do’.109 Society, therefore, consents to being policed. Examples of the acceptance of
policing by consent are rife within today’s popular culture: “it’s a fair cop, guv” commonplace
within British gangster movies and colloquial slang.110
The ability for the police to maintain legitimacy ultimately rests with each individual
police officer deployed operationally.111 Beetham provides us with a schema for understanding
legitimate power:
“it must conform to established rules; the rules are justified by reference to beliefs shared
by both the dominant and the subordinate [parties]; and there is evidence of consent by
the subordinate to the particular power relation.”112
Prior to Kääriäinen’s 2008 study of the police-public relationship in Finland, research
suggested that police legitimacy could be affected by three factors: a variation in the perceived
problem of crime; the visibility and proximity of the police in the community; and the quality
of the policing.113 For instance, data from the USA shows that if people experience crime or
feel unsafe in their own neighbourhood then there is a decreased level of trust in the police.114
Kääriäinen’s study of the Finnish police challenged this earlier research; he found that
victimisation or witnessing a crime did not affect trust in the police.115 More interesting was
the examination of proximity and visibility of the police. The American data, and to some
extent data from Finland, indicated that this is a factor that can affect legitimacy;116 visibility
increased legitimacy.117 Kääriäinen concluded that only two factors had the potential to affect
the sense of Finn’s trust in the police: observing delays in police responding to emergencies or
dangerous events, and perceived negative experiences or contacts with police officers.118 But
Kääriäinen observed the opposite in Denmark, that the visible presence of police creates a
sense of unease, that it indicates something dramatic or dangerous has or is about to occur.119
Kääriäinen’s analysis is instructive. It highlights that culture influences theory;
differences between North American and Nordic policing experiences show that a theory
109
Ibid.
Ibid., 69.
111
Moll, Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles.
112
David Beetham, The Legitimation of Power (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991). cited in Brian Rappert, "Constructions of
Legitimate Force. The Case of Cs Sprays," British Journal of Criminology 42.4 (2002): 692. Italicisation of consent is the
researcher’s emphasis.
113
Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?."
114
Ronald Weitzer and Steven Tuch, A, "Determinants of Public Satisfaction with the Police," Police Quarterly 8.3 (2005), In Soo
Son, Chiu-Wai Tsang, Dennis M. Rome and Mark S. Davis, "Citizens’ Observations of Police Use of Excessive Force and Their
Evaluation of Police Performance," Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 20.1 (1997)., cited in
Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?.", Son, Tsang, Rome and Davis, "Citizens’ Observations of Police Use of
Excessive Force and Their Evaluation of Police Performance."
115
Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?."
116
James E. Hawdon, John Ryan and Sean P. Griffin, "Policing Tactics and Perceptions of Police Legitimacy," Police Quarterly 6.4
(2003)., cited in Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?."
117
Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?."
118
Ibid.
119
Ibid.
110
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developed from one culture is not necessarily applicable to another. It also, indirectly,
challenges the broader understanding of the mission and value of community policing.
Community policing relies on a cornerstone belief that the interests of the community will be
served through an increase of visibility and availability for the public to engage with police
officers. The Danish data contradicts this; an increase of police visibility in Denmark increases
the sense of community unease. So, the Danish response might then exist in other countries,
and therefore counter the value of transferring policing initiatives from one country to
another.
409-436 EUC-080720.qxd
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Page 419
Police legitimacy and trust can also be seen in terms of the degree of quality and lack
Kääriäinen Trust in the police in 16 European countries
419
of corruption of the whole government.120 Kääriäinen draws on research from the 2004
by Eurostat is used that includes the expenditures not only of the police, judi-
cial and prison systems
but ranks
also of thethe
fire and
rescue services
European Social Survey European
which
police
forcesin relation
of 16toEuropean countries.
the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003 (Eurostat 2005).
This is reproduced in Figure 2 below, ranking the degree of trust in the police from zero to ten
Results
(being the highest). It is interesting
to note that Finland ranks the highest and that the
Country-level observations
remaining Nordic countries
are at the head of the table. It is also interesting to note the low
Let us first take a look at how the degree of trust in the police varies between
the 16 countries under examination. Figure 1 displays the country-specific
ranking of former communist
countries
suchtheasdegree
Czech
Republic
means of the
variable describing
of trust
(on a scale ofand
0–10).Poland.
It
shows that the top three countries standing out from the others are all Nordic
countries: Finland, Denmark and Norway. Sweden, ranked fourth, belongs to
the same group. Next come Central and West European countries such as
Finland
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Germany
Luxembourg
Austria
United Kingdom
Greece
Spain
Belgium
Estonia
Portugal
Slovenia
Poland
Czech Republic
0.00
2.00
4.00
6.00
8.00
Figure 1 Trust in the police in 16 European countries in 2004, mean values by country.
Figure 2: Trust in European Police Forces 2004, ranking from 0
(lowest) to 10 (highest), taken from the 2004 Corruption
Perception Index published by Transparency International121
Downloaded from euc.sagepub.com at Victoria Univ of Wellington on November 6, 2011
Kääriäinen found a strong link between trust in the police and the level of corruption
experienced in government.122 He also found a weaker link with the amount of resources
invested in public safety; countries that spent less on public safety had higher levels of trust in
120
Kääriäinen, "Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries: A Multilevel Analysis."
Ibid.
122
Ibid. The study utilised data from 2004 Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International and country
gross domestic product (GDB) spending from 2003 collated by Eurostat.
121
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the police than those that spent more on public safety. He observed that countries that spent
less on public safety tended to spend more on social or welfare services suggesting that the
country’s choice reflected on their individual approach to addressing societal problems.123
Kääriäinen’s research provides several insights. The first is that research into
measuring the way in which the public trust the police differs between similar cultural or
geographical groups. While it might be a valid presumption that there could be differing views
of North American and Nordic jurisdictions, the difference between Denmark and Finland
indicates the difficulty of grouping discrete nations into ethnic or geographical groups.
Second, that the trust in police is linked to a wider trust or preference for the wider
government machine. This can lead to the deduction that a sense of trust or the public’s sense
of police legitimacy may not just be a product of an officer-citizen transaction.
COMMUNITY POLICING
Often, the notions of ‘policing by consent’ and ‘community policing’ become confused. In
fact, the definitions of community policing itself are ambiguous and sometimes confusing.124
Most commonly, community policing is viewed as a tool that addresses the perceived
shortcomings of centralisation and mobilisation – foot patrols were replaced by vehicle
patrols and smaller police stations were closed in favour of larger centralised stations. The
result of the modernisation process saw a reduction of preventative foot patrolling as mobile
vehicle patrols responded to calls for service.125 Community policing is therefore often
associated with reintroduction of foot patrols through local communities and the reemergence of smaller community policing stations. While these changes to police deployment
may make the police more visible in the communities, they only account for one part of
community policing. The most important feature of community policing is the engagement of
communities with police to set the police agenda.126 While this can often include settling
minor neighbourhood disputes there are problem-solving techniques employed by
community police officers to address broader community problems. Examples of this include
‘crime prevention through environmental design’ (CPTED) a popular technique with urban
planners seeking to redesign public places to discourage crime. In essence, the community
policing approach is a process for the police to work in partnership with the community to
prevent crime from occurring.127
123
Ibid.
Rick Sarre, "The State of Community Based Policing in Australia: Some Emerging Themes," Australian Policing :
Contemporary Issues, eds. Duncan Chappell and Paul R. Wilson, 2nd ed. (Sydney: Butterworths, 1996).
125
Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st Century Societies.
126
Cynthia Lum, "Community Policing or Zero Tolerance?: Preferences of Police Officers from 22 Countries in Transition,"
British Journal of Criminology 49.6 (2009).
127
Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st Century Societies.
124
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Lum suggests that successful public engagement in crime control, through
community policing, increases the level of accountability and legitimacy of the police.128 Her
study examined policing trends in 22 countries from Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
and South and Latin America that were transitioning from authoritarian governance to
democratic states. She observed a positive empirical link between democratisation and
community policing, noting that both share similar values and that community policing
provides a support base for democratic police forces.129
The ethos behind community policing is inconsistent with more authoritarian
strategies such as zero-tolerance policing and paramilitary-policing. Community policing
employs soft approaches – such as problem-solving techniques – whereas zero-tolerance
approaches rely on harder techniques such as indiscriminate prosecution or military tactics.
The policing environment however requires both the soft and hard approaches. Riotous and
large-scale disorder requires a swift and strong response from police to maintain order and
regain ‘the peace’. Maintaining a balance of both peace and order is required, and is often
achieved through specialised units within a police force. Just as there are specialised public
order policing teams, who are trained in crowd control, and crowd dispersal, so are there
specialist community-policing officers.130
3.3 Reflections
Kääriäinen’s analysis, and the subsequent inference that culture influences theory, raises a
question of the merit of comparative case studies across different cultures. This becomes
particularly relevant in this research project, in terms of identifying risk factors from the study
of one culture, such as Norway, and applying them to another such as New Zealand. However,
the selection of England and Wales, and Norway has not been made because of overt cultural
similarities, such as language, lineage and heritage apparent in the comparison of England and
New Zealand. The merit in the selection lies in the examination of police systems with similar
character; highly civilianised forces, robust democracies, routinely unarmed police, and a
strong sense of policing by consent (Sweden shares similar qualities but is routinely armed).
In a sense, these qualities do indicate similarities of the cultures and philosophies. It is the
view of the researcher that these similarities provide the merit of this study.
128
Lum, "Community Policing or Zero Tolerance?: Preferences of Police Officers from 22 Countries in Transition."
Ibid.
130
Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st Century Societies.
129
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Chapter 4 – Research Findings: Case Studies
4.1 Introduction to the case studies
The purpose of this chapter is to present the data collected from the field research in three
case studies. Each case study follows a similar format but there are differences in the types of
data presented. This was due to the varying availability of current data and existing empirical
research. Nonetheless, the case studies, when viewed individually and comparatively, provide
a useful starting point for understanding the subject. Each case study opens with a brief
history of the policing tradition. Similarly, each case study comments on pressures relating to
crime and legitimacy. Although there are general similarities amongst the forces, some
differences emerge. A significant portion of each study addresses the respective police
firearms policy and subsequent implications. It is intended that the three studies be addressed
consecutively; comparisons emerge towards the end.
4.2 The Police of England and Wales
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLICING
‘Modern’ policing emerged in England in 1829 due to the prolonged efforts of Sir Robert
Peel.131 The question of the modernisation of policing was addressed in parliamentary
committees of 1812 although it took a further five attempts before Peel was successful in
establishing the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. With the exception of the City, the new police
force provided a unified public police force for the greater London area. Often referred to as
the new police, Peel’s police force was a policing revolution with central government taking
direct responsibility for the policing of society using a specialised public police with a new
mandate of crime prevention.132
Support for the new state-run centralised policing was not universal. There was
widespread unease amongst the middle and upper classes; Peel eventually overcame these
concerns by ensuring that his ‘new police’ were not aligned or under the control of the
military and were independent of the parliament; that is his police were seen to be civilian.
This was achieved through symbolism; the style and colour of uniform was blue not red, as
red was associated with the army, and most importantly the police force was unarmed.
Symbolism aside, Peel also realised the need to distance the new police from the image of
131
132
Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
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invincibility of the policing counterparts in Continental Europe and the Americas.133 Thus
emerged the ‘benign-bobby’, Sir Robert’s unarmed arbiters of conflict, relying on their wits
instead of the coercive power of the red coats, remaining unarmed to build rapport and to
seek compliance through the respect of police authority.134 However the unarmed nature of
the new police was not just one of theatrics; Peel had practical concerns about the suitability
of his new recruits and their ability to use firearms safely according to policy.135
Peel appointed Charles Rowan and Richard Mayne to run the Metropolitan Police
(the ‘Met’) as co-commissioners. They established a set of guiding principals on how the
police force should function, including the following statement that notes the importance of
crime prevention:
It should be understood at the outset that the principal object to be attained is the
prevention of crime. To this great and everyday effort of the police is to be directed. The
security of person and property, the preservation of the public tranquillity and all other
objects of a police establishment will thus be better effected than by detection and
punishment of an offender after he has succeeded in committing the crime.136
A key strategy was the use of minimal force. Initially, access to weaponry was limited,
although when circumstances permitted officers could arm themselves with pistols or
cutlasses.137
There was widespread concern from all classes that the police force was yet another
government measure to regulate and control freedom.138 It is interesting to note that ‘new
policing’ model did not spread universally through the British Empire and colonies. Colonial
policing remained aligned with militarised occupation as seen in the colonies of Australia,
India and Ireland.139 Waddington and Wright observe that the difference in the policing
model was a product of who was being policed; the free English in Britain were policed by a
liberal and lightly armed civilianised force but this was not appropriate for colonised
Ireland.140 The new police were preoccupied with the working classes, dealing with drunken
disputes and general disorder.141 However by the 1870’s, they had largely won over the
working classes and achieved widespread acceptance of the legitimacy of the policing
system.142
133
P.A.J. Waddington, Arming an Unarmed Police: Policy and Practice in the Metropolitan Police (London: Police Foundation,
1988), Waddington and Wright, "Police Use of Guns in Unarmed Countries: The United Kingdom."
134
Waddington, Arming an Unarmed Police: Policy and Practice in the Metropolitan Police.
135
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force.
136
Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st Century Societies 32.
137
Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
138
Ibid.
139
Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st Century Societies.
140
Waddington and Wright, "Police Use of Guns in Unarmed Countries: The United Kingdom."
141
Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
142
Ibid.
37
38
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CHARACTERISTICS AND CHALLENGES OF MODERN ENGLISH POLICING
Today, the myth of the benign-bobby still pervades the British psyche. Police officers are no
longer dressed in a shirt, tie and smart blazer with their wooden truncheon discreetly hidden.
Minimum-force strategies have steadily eroded as a consequence of the mass disorder of the
1970s, hostage and international terrorism emergencies in the 1980s, the mistaken suicide
bomber shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, and the re-emergence of riotous
disorder in London during 2011.143 English police now wear bright yellow jackets, and stabresistant vests, and are armed with pepper spray, rigid handcuffs, and expandable batons.
Public order squads deploy with riot shields. Armed response units are deployed fulltime with
officers carrying pistols, MP5 sub-machine guns and other assault rifles, prepared for terrorist
or active shooter scenarios. The police engage military units, such as the SAS, to execute
terrorists; while armed police now have protocols to execute suspected suicide bombers. The
English police are no longer a benign force.
Yet, the public, police, and some criminologists, still cling to Peel’s now mythical
image of the benign bobby. Squires and Kennison refer to this as the myth of the ‘golden age
of policing’.144 Today despite all the contemporary crime pressures placed on police, there is
still a yearning for a non-militarised police that retains legitimacy and the trust of the public
through its restraint, or as Squires and Kennison describe it, the ‘restraint paradigm’:
Trust in the police is also essential since this secures our consent to be policed and a
trustworthy police is one that acknowledges our civil rights. Indeed … for 150 years police
use of force has been formally based upon notions of restraint, minimal force, the rule of
law, not setting out to kill the suspect…. This notion of policing we refer to as the restraint
paradigm and we set this against a more militarised paradigm which is characterised by
low discretion, … or overwhelming superiority of firepower at close quarters and target
incapacitation to eliminate the danger.145
Squires and Kennison conclude that 150 years on from the birth of modern policing, there is
still the desire for a civilianised police force that retains the same characteristics of Peel’s new
police – to garner cooperation of the public through non-coercive means. This was also
evident in senior police management. Consider this from a senior Met commissioned officer:
The sole skill of being a police officer ought to be your ability to talk to the public if you
want a policing by consent model. If you don’t want a policing by consent model, arm
143
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Reiner, The Politics of the Police, Squires and Kennison,
Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response, Waddington, Arming an Unarmed Police: Policy and Practice in the
Metropolitan Police.
144
Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response.
145
Ibid., 1.
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them, put them in armoured personnel carriers and put them on street corners. If you
want them to talk to people you don’t divorce them from the public.146
But how practical is this?
Sir Robert Mark, Met Commissioner 1972-1977, famously said, “the real art to
policing a free society or a democracy is to win by appearing to lose”.147 For example, special
tactics deployed by the mounted police were for horses to feign death on command, not only
exposing a vulnerability of the officer riding the horse, but to solicit sympathy of animal
loving rioters.148 However, current experience suggests that this approach is no longer
appropriate. ‘Vulnerability’ tactics were insufficient to deal with the more violent and
aggressive events of the 1980s. In the 1990s, the Police Federation successfully pushed for
increased protection for officers – the health and safety agenda – resulting in extra kit for
front line officers. The Federation also challenged the unarmed status of the force. In
response, the Met devised specialist squads to deal with the most dangerous of situations,
including public order teams and armed response teams.149 However, the developments failed
to address front-line officers’ inability to deal with serious incidents at the time of first
occurrence.
An example of this incapability is shown below.150 The series of screen shots have
been taken from a video of a man in London wielding a machete. The first picture shows the
man surrounded by a group of police officers attempting an arrest (Figure 3). The police have
already deployed pepper spray but it has had no effect on the man.
Figure 3: Man with machete
146
Interviewee 1, Personal Interview. 9 June 2011
Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
148
Ibid.
149
Waddington, Arming an Unarmed Police: Policy and Practice in the Metropolitan Police.
150
Telegraphtv, Amateur Video of Machete Weilding Man Being Tackled by Police with a Wheelie Bin. 2011 Video. Youtube. Web.
17/11/2011
147
40
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The second picture shows the next tactical response: one officer distracts the man using a
wheelie-bin while a second officer approaches from behind to strike him with an expandable
baton (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Attempt to subdue man
The application of pepper spray and the baton strike have been unsuccessful.151 The inability
of the front-line officers to deal with the situation is a product of the difference of utility of the
available force applied by an officer and the subject’s ability to resist the force – the result is a
force deficit.152 The matter is finally resolved when a large number of police storm the subject
with riot shields (Figure 5) effectively eliminating the force deficit.
Figure 5: Multiple officers storm and subdue man
This example illustrates the vulnerability of the unarmed officer which, now and then will
result in incapacity to deal with the incident. Fortunately, in this example the man did not
decamp from the street, or attempt to barricade himself inside any of the surrounding
buildings. If so, the incident would have increased in severity and would have required more
robust tactical options.
151
Ibid.
Ross Wolf, Charlie Mesloh, Mark Henych and L. Frank Thompson, "Police Use of Force and the Cumulative Force Factor,"
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 32.4 (2009).
152
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The officers initially were unable to adequately deal with incident, underscoring the
occasional vulnerabilities of the consent approach – the man with the machete did not
consent to being arrested and police were unable to take control. The force deficit created
incapacity and was only rectified by the rush of a large group of officers.
USE OF FIREARMS & TACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
In the late 1960s the first specialist Firearms Branch of the Met was created. It consisted of
volunteers from the regular police who received specialist training and would be deployed
when circumstances required.153 The inadequacies of this model, created by deployment
delays and highlighted by problems in responding to the Hungerford mass shooting in 1986,
resulted in the formation of Armed Response Vehicles (ARV) in 1991.154 ARVs are operated
by full-time dedicated firearms trained officers and are deployed to patrol on a 24-hour,
seven-day per week basis. In London, ARVs are able to respond to any armed threat within 10
minutes. The ARV model is not resourced to the same degree outside London. While the
Metropolitan Police have approximately 20 ARV on patrol at any one time (each crewed with
three officers), provincial police forces may only have two ARV squads (crewed with two
officers) covering geographical distances greater the London area.155
Discussions with a London-based ARV crew provided some interesting insights. They
believed that routine arming of all English police officers in all 43 forces would create
logistical and financial pressures: the cost of training, and retraining would cripple operating
budgets. There was also the view that there would be a high proportion of officers who would
not be suited to using firearms or did not want to work with firearms and would resign. The
‘myth’ of weapon retention was present, with one officer commenting, “Imagine a young
female by herself not being able to retain and look after her weapon.”156 This was particularly
surprising from the middle-aged male officer of small stature who raised it, and given that
weapon retention is clearly not an issue identified in other countries where officers are
routinely armed. However, while the comment reflects poorly on the attitude of the officer, it
is also perhaps indicative of lack with familiarity of firearms amongst the general British
populace, including the police. The crew’s shift inspector did not share the concerns about
weapon retention; he commented that if other officers in other countries could retain their
weapon, why couldn’t the English police?
There were some insights that were of higher value. The crew had no difficulty with
the idea of returning to general front-line duties without firearms, as they did not believe that
153
Waddington and Wright, "Police Use of Guns in Unarmed Countries: The United Kingdom."
Ibid.
155
Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
156
Interviewee 19, Personal Interview. 27 June 2011
154
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the environment was that unsafe. They also felt that the English environment had become less
violent over the past 20 years and that they were increasingly dealing with people who were
‘mad’ not ‘bad’.157 Similarly, there was not a great concern about the large quantity of illegally
owned firearms:
[The problem of armed criminals] is less of a problem in the UK [as] it is harder to get
firearms. The kind of people who are likely to use firearms against police are chaotic
people who are not worried about whether we are armed or not. The kind of people who
are less likely to use firearms against police are organised criminals.158
They commented that the tightening of arms control laws has made it difficult to source
firearms – legally and illegally – but more importantly, it has resulted in a scarcity of
ammunition.
THREATS TO POLICE LEGITIMACY
The yuck factor
Waddington has provided a great deal of research that helps explain English methods in
relation to tactical responses and use of force. One of his current research projects looks at
public opinion regarding the use of force by police. Using focus groups he explores opinions
about how police employ physical restraint, hand-tactics, and handcuffing. He has observed a
high degree of discussion and sometimes aversion to the physical nature of policing even
though the scenarios that gave rise to this aversion did not include any explicit excessive use
of force; the actions of police were proportionate and appropriate to meet the resistance
encountered. He has concluded that the public do not like seeing the ‘heavy-handed’ nature of
physical restraint, nor the sense of unfairness when multiple officers tackle a single offender.
The use of these tactics incurs a type of ‘yuck factor’. He therefore questions the current style
of policing technique, characterised by the aversion to deploying physical techniques:
So the assumption that the public is prepared to quite easily accept police officers jumping
on to somebody, wrestling them unceremoniously on to the ground, usually with two or
three officers, with one struggling person putting them in handcuffs, putting them in the
van, that this is not controversial? And that the use of the Taser or CS spray is
controversial, is fanciful! 159
It is Waddington’s conclusion that society requires fair and professional police and that use of
force must be on an impartial level. The image of grappling with ‘someone in the gutter’
157
This is common policing parlance for differentiating between the mentally ill, who might act in a dangerous manner, and
those who are criminally violent.
158
Interviewee 1, Personal Interview.
159
P.A.J. Waddington, Personal Interview. 2011
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might be proportionate in the hierarchy of force, but it looks bad, and therefore feels unfair,
unprofessional and very personal. This was also the view of one of the interviewees:
Giving people tools to use force and using force more often is not necessarily a bad thing –
such as less lethal [options]. It’s the attitude that goes with it. It is the training and
professionalism. Changes [have occurred] from the 70’s and 80’s [when it was about]
summary justice – we’ve become much more professional in the use of force.160
In another study, responses were sought from focus groups that watched footage
taken of an ARV in action in London. Waddington explains:
The Met … were surprised … that [what] the public objected to, was not the fact that there
is a car going down the road, they jump out with MP5s, there is a guy on the floor [told to]
“open your legs” – “NO” and he is kicked. [The guy] is looking down the business end of
an MP5 – it doesn’t get any more serious than this (if it does it is terminal) and the public
is worried about somebody kicking somebody’s legs open? 161
Waddington questions the nature of the public’s dislike of the offender being kicked by an
armed officer – as if the kick was personal and unfair. However, probably unknown to the lay
observer is that the officer must use both hands to hold the MP5; with no free hand there is no
other technique available to the armed officer. Waddington’s point is that the public were not
opposed to the armed officer training his firearm on the subject, it was the kick that created
the ‘yuck factor’.
Kratos – Shooting to kill
The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005 marks the most troubling turning point
in the use of force by the English police. Police shot de Menezes because they believed that he
was a suicide bomber intending to deploy a bomb.162 How do you stop a suicide bomber from
detonating the bomb? Waddington explains the reasoning behind the Kratos163 policy:
The … problem is that suicide bombers, may, clever ones, have a contact on the end of the
[their] fingers and a contact in the middle of the palm. One of the last things to desert us
when we die is the grasp reflex … as a person dies they would often grasp and that would
set a bomb off anyway. There is nothing particularly different or new about that. If you
have a hostage being held at gunpoint and the decision is taken for sniper option … the
sniper is going to aim for the point around the middle of the brain stem … killing is not
160
Interviewee 1, Personal Interview.
Waddington, Personal Interview.
162
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
163
Kratos is the policy for dealing with suspected suicide bombers; essentially it is a ‘shoot-to-kill’ tactic.
161
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enough – it is designed to instantaneously severe all connection between the brain and the
body.164
The tragedy of the de Menezes case is that police at the time mistook him for a suicide
bomber. Subsequent investigations have found severe deficiencies in all aspects of the
operation165 and a severe threat to police legitimacy. Consider Punch:
Consent is based upon the exercise of legitimate authority and if the public doubts that
legitimacy it can revoke consent.166
The de Menezes incident epitomises the change in the English policing approach from one of
restraint using an unarmed police force, policing by consent, the benign bobby, when one had
nothing to fear from a policeman167 to the use of lethal force to eliminate danger. The
comments of one interviewee provide an insight into the potential impact on the police-public
relationship should police of England and Wales become routinely armed:
… this would eventually become normalised over time but there would be a change in the
attitude of the public towards the police for the first few years – there would be a real
increase in the fear of the police. By the time it became normalised, people would have
generated internally a natural apprehension, rather than a feeling of security.168
EMERGENT RISK FACTORS
Both the ‘yuck factor’ and the de Menezes incident show how the use of force can undermine
the sense of police legitimacy. A simple kick can be seen as personal and undermines the
public faith in the professionalism of police.
4.3 The Norwegian Police – Politi- og lensmannsetaten
A BRIEF HISTORY
Norwegian policing shares a common history with Denmark and Sweden. The first public
police officer emerged during the Middle Ages; known as the Lensman, the officer was a
functionary who enforced local laws and collected taxes on behalf of the King.169 Over time,
the role evolved differently throughout the Nordic countries. In Norway, the Lensman served
under the monarch’s territorial representative and was directly elected by the peasantry, while
164
Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
Commission Independent Police Complaints, Stockwell One : Investigation into the Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes at
Stockwell Underground Station on 22 July 2005 (London: Independent Police Complaints Commission, 2007).
166
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force 183.
167
Ibid.
168
Interviewee 1, Personal Interview.
169
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
165
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in Denmark the office became hereditary. Towards the 18th and 19th centuries, Norway
became less influenced by police evolution in Europe, and the gendarmerie model, and
became more influenced by the developments in England. There are records of Norwegian
officials visiting Sir Robert Peel in London during the 1830s.170 However, during the Second
World War, policing became more oppressive.171 Norway was occupied by Germany and
police collaboration with Nazi occupiers resulted in Jewish deportation.172 At the conclusion
of the war, as a result of this, a number of police were prosecuted, and the Norwegian police
force had to work very hard to regain legitimacy and the support of the people.
POLICE LEGITIMACY & POLICING CHARACTERISTICS
The Norwegian police are not routinely armed. The Finnish Police were the first Nordic force
to become routinely armed following their civil war in 1918.173 The Danish police became
routinely armed in 1965 after four officers were shot at a single incident.174 The Swedish police
become routinely armed in 1965 as a result of reorganisation and modernisation. Prior to
1965 Swedish police were armed with sabres, and some regional forces were routinely armed
with pistols. As a result of the modernisation, a national police force was established and
police were routinely armed with officers wearing a sidearm.175
The explanations of why the Norwegian police remain routinely unarmed are a
mixture of history and utility. The Nazi Occupation left a nasty reminder of the perils of state
control and absolute power. One interviewee commented:
The Norwegian police, after the war, had a lot of problems with their legitimacy and had
to start work from scratch to build confidence. This also, I think, has stressed the
importance of [a] civilian orientated police, co-operation with the public, [and] policing by
consent.176
The observation is curious and instructive. It shows that there was a need to rebuild
confidence in the police force after the oppression experienced during the occupation. The
interviewee also stressed the perceived need to build a civilianised force, one that was not
aligned with the military, through the consent of the public. The other reason for remaining
unarmed is one of utility; the Norwegians do not yet perceive the need to be routinely armed.
There was a consistent view among the interviewees in Norway that the current level
of public trust in the Norwegian Police is high and that there is a strong sense of police
170
Interviewee 8, Personal Interview.
Ibid, Interviewee 3, Personal Interview.
172
Interviewee 8, Personal Interview.
173
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries."
174
Ibid.
175
Ibid.
176
Interviewee 8, Personal Interview.
171
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legitimacy. They attribute this to the strong post-war democratic traditions and the fact that
the police have not been embroiled in conflicts with lower-socio economic groups and unions
(such as was experienced by police in England in the 1980s with mine workers). This can also
be seen in published literature. Kääriäinen’s 2007 study of trust in European police ranks
Norway and the other three major Nordic countries ahead of the continental countries (refer
to Figure 2, page 33). As a country, Norway has consistently rated highly by Transparency
International. In 2010, it was ranked tenth least corrupt of 178 countries in the 2010
Corruption Perception Index.177
Feedback from interviewees resonates with and reinforces the findings of Kääriäinen’s
studies of police legitimacy. All Norwegian interviewees commented on the lack of systemic
police (and government) corruption. There were references to isolated cases of misconduct
however there was no sense that these events affected the overall level of trust.
I would describe [the] relationship as sound and solid. A lot of research shows that the
police in Norway are trusted. People have a lot of confidence in the police. … Of course
many think that we see police officers too seldom, too few of them.178
Several interviewees commented on how Norwegian society has changed over the past 30
years and how the police have had to accommodate this:
If you take the attitude of the Norwegian Police from 1980 and implement that in 2010 the
public would react negatively because [the public] see themselves equal of [of] the police.
And that’s of course reflected upon the police because they can’t treat the public in a way
that would affect negatively on the trust and the confidence of the police.179
Other interviewees equate positive changes in police culture with changes to police education.
Training now occurs under a university style degree program that takes three years to
complete. Therefore all recruits are university graduates and that has improved the quality of
police. There is also a greater diversity including professional backgrounds.
I think the Norwegian police officer in general are quite well educated. Also because now a
lot of students they have studied at the University - they have other professional
backgrounds being actors or dentists or you know, so quite well educated.180
USE OF FIREARMS & TACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Norway’s police has remained routinely unarmed, but is in fact an armed police force.
Officers do not wear firearms on their person as a matter of course, but each patrol vehicle
177
Transparency International, Corruption Perception Index 2010 (Berlin: 2010).
Interviewee 8, Personal Interview.
179
Interviewee 4, Personal Interview. 14 June 2011
180
Interviewee 8, Personal Interview.
178
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carries firearms in sealed locked safes.181 As such, all police officers are trained to use firearms
if necessary. This is similar to the situation in New Zealand but differs from the English model
where only a proportion of police are trained and authorised to use firearms. The Norwegian
police also have an Oslo-based specialist-armed unit Beredskapstroppen for armed hostage
situations or high-risk operations.
There are strict controls in Norway on the deployment of firearms. Except in extreme
circumstances, the local chief of police must approve the use and deployment of firearms
personally. Police are able to deploy firearms operationally in the following circumstances:
•
To prevent imminent danger or grievous bodily harm;
•
To arrest very dangerous persons;
•
To prevent substantial damage on foreign property (such as embassies);
•
To prevent objects or institutions of public interest from being seriously harmed (such as
parliament or strategic infrastructure).
The use of arms is governed under a minimisation of force principle; damage must limited as
much as possible.182 The result of this is a high proportion of overt threats of being shot
(where an officer presents a firearm and issues a verbal challenges) and firing warning shots to
draw attention.183
Figure 6 (below) shows the number of incidents where the Norwegian police have
responded to incidents by deploying firearms between 1990 and 2007. The orange line shows
where ‘threats’ have been made and the red line indicates actual fire. The graph shows a sharp
rise of threats of fire over the period of 1998 to 2000 but the number of shots fired is relatively
consistent over the same period. There are two explanations offered by the authors of this
study; first two police officers were shot and killed in 1998 and as such officers have
heightened their sense of perception of risk, and second, in 2000 the reporting of firearms
incidents changed, which may have resulted in a different approach to categorisation.184
181
Johannes Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms – a Comparison" Stockholm Criminology Symposium, Stockholm, 14-16 June, 2010.
Tor-Geir Myhrer and Jon Strype, "Police Use of Guns in a Routinely Unarmed Police Force: Regulations and Practise in
Norway," Police Use of Force : A Global Perspective, eds. Joseph B. Kuhns and Johannes Knutsson (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010).
183
The use of warning shots is commonplace in Nordic countries and is inconsistent with firearms practice in New Zealand
(General Instruction F64 states that “As a general rule, warning shots should never be fired.”)
184
Myhrer and Strype, "Police Use of Guns in a Routinely Unarmed Police Force: Regulations and Practise in Norway."
182
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90
80
70
Number of incidents
threats
60
50
40
30
20
10
shot
s
0
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
X Axis
Figure 6: Norwegian Police firearm incidents 1990-2007185
All first-response patrol vehicles in Norway carry four firearms: two 9mm pistols and
two 9mm MP5 sub-machine guns. If first-response police are directed to a firearms-worthy
incident they may request the deployment of firearms. This needs to be authorised personally
by the local chief of police (or the nominee). This authorising procedure causes a natural
delay – one interviewee commented that authorisation routinely takes 4-5 minutes and
permission is not always granted.
There was a majority view amongst the interviewees in Norway that the unarmed
status and delay incurred by seeking authorisation works in favour of the safety of the police
officer. For instance, when an armed incident is dispatched or discovered by a patrol, the
delay and armament process results in extra time for officers to prepare. It allows critical time
for police to plan their tactical approach to the situation and also allows for additional police
to arrive, thereby enhancing tactical options. An interviewee who recently met with Danish
counterparts illustrates the utility of this process:
We had an interesting experience when we visited our Danish colleagues … they have been
armed for many years. Their new strategy … now is to stop and think. And we stop and
think when we get our weapons on … we pull [ourselves] back, secure the crime scene, get
forces and colleagues with us and it’s better. So if a thief gets off, so what? It’s better than
somebody getting hurt – we’ll catch them anyway. In America – “we can’t let him go”, first
pull your gun, it’s hard to reverse it.186
185
186
Reproduced from ibid., 102.
Interviewee 5, Personal Interview. 15 June 2011
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The process also provides the potential for a greater quantity of staff being present at an
incident. The table below shows that on average there are twice as many staff present at
firearms incidents in Norway as there are in Sweden:
Table 3: Officers present during effective fire incidents187
Jurisdiction
Average number of
officers present
Median number of
officers present
Norway
7.4
5
Sweden
3.2
2
Another interviewee commented on how his unarmed status has saved his life on more than
one occasions.
I have been threatened [with] firearms three times, like [at] more than an arm length
distance. My reflections after those incidents is that if I’d been armed in those situations I
am quite sure I would have been shot, because my action might be that I am taking my
weapon and that would cause the reaction from the opposite party.188
While these views reflect the preference of Norwegian police officers to remain unarmed,
there is some sense of inevitability amongst interviewees that this will change in the future.
Many interviewees observed changes in the level of violence experienced in society, and some
observed that criminal influences from some Eastern European and Baltic states, apparent in
Sweden, are slowly drifting into Norway.
Because we have no borders anymore and we have new people with other cultural
background and they come from [places] where the police forces are very very different
from Norway.189
Another interviewee commented on the impact of organised crime from these countries:
Like the former Yugoslavia, we have the soldiers, very well uneducated soldiers who were
soldiers during the Balkan War – used to kill … they are recruited in organised crime
organisations because of their experience.190
There was a unanimous feeling amongst the interviewees that the Norwegian police should
only become routinely armed if circumstances are justifiable, but that if this was to happen,
society would eventually accept it and it would become normalised. For instance:
187
Data sourced from Swedish National Police Board from incidents ranging 1996 to 2004 and Norwegian Police University
College from incidents ranging 1996 to 2006. Knutsson "Police Use of Firearms – a Comparison"
188
Interviewee 6, Personal Interview. 15 June 2011
189
Interviewee 5, Personal Interview.
190
Interviewee 6, Personal Interview.
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My personal view is that if we were permanently armed I think it will be a matter of time
before we get used to it, like in Denmark…. I don’t think that is the biggest issue of being
permanently armed or not.191
EMERGENT RISK FACTORS
There was a general feeling in Norway that routinely armed police officers were at a higher
risk than unarmed officers. Most interviewees observed a distinct sense of pride that
Norwegian police were unarmed and were able to deal with most situations through patience,
maturity and the importance of valuing life. However, there was also an overall sense, that
should the Norwegian police become routinely armed, Norwegian society would soon come
to accept it.
4.4 The Swedish police – Polismyndigheten
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
The origins of Swedish policing are shared with the other Nordic countries including the
medieval traditional Lensman common in Denmark and Norway.192 However, events in the
first half of the 20th century played out differently for Sweden. Whereas Norway was occupied
during the Second World War, Sweden maintained neutrality. During the war, policing was
not centralised or nationalised resulting in 1,621 distinct policing districts.193 As a
consequence, each district had different policing policies and armament requirements. Some
officers overtly wore sabres and others had a sidearm secured discretely in a pocket. However,
in 1965, policing was reorganised reducing the quantity of policing districts, implementing
nationwide polices, establishing a national Commissioner, and standardising uniforms and
equipment.194 As a consequence, a sidearm was to be worn by all officers on duty.
We were armed before 1965, even in 1929, but we were carrying [arms] in a different way.
My father was a police officer before 1965 and I know for a fact that they shot a lot at the
time – but there were no statistics – because they were shooting after car thieves, running
after burglars, they were shooting a lot.195
191
Ibid.
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
193
Lars-Erik Plantin, "The Organisation of the Swedish Police," Police and the Social Order : Contemporary Research Perspectives,
eds. Johannes Knutsson, Eckart Kühlhorn and Albert J. Reiss (Stockholm: National Swedish Council for Crime Prevention,
Research and Development Division, 1979)., cited in Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis.
194
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries.", Knutsson "Police Use of Firearms – a Comparison"
195
Interviewee 11, Personal Interview. 23 June 2011
192
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Given that Norway now awaits an appropriate ‘trigger’ to become armed, like Denmark or
Finland, it is interesting to consider Sweden’s 1965’s general arming was as a result of
modernisation and to achieve national consistency.
POLICE LEGITIMACY
Like Norway, the Swedish public have a high level of trust in their police.196 Sweden is ranked
fourth by Kääriäinen’s study under Norway, Denmark and Finland, but at the same level as
Germany and Luxemburg (see Figure 2 on page 33). Factors influencing this might include
population (Sweden is almost double that of the other Nordic countries) as well as
geographical pressures. Sweden buffers Norway from continental Europe and its major sea
border lies across from the United Kingdom. Therefore, Sweden is more likely to be
susceptible to wider European crime and criminals than Norway.
There was a consistent view among the seven Swedish interviewees that the policepublic relationship was positive but had room for improvement. The specific challenges
affecting the relationship that they indentified included a general increase in immigration
from Eastern Europe, which had brought new pressures of organised crime, and the aftermath
of widespread anti-capitalist rioting in Gothenburg in 1991. For instance:
… earlier they were much more keen to keep in their own world. Maybe they killed each
other but it used to be nice and polite and they would put them in some water hole or
something. Today it’s not like that, they shoot them, kill each other on the pavement in
front of other people in the cafés – like you see [in] mafia films. We had it two weeks ago:
three people were just machinegun shot down in the centre of town.197
This sense of increasing violence in their society shaped the interviewees’ views on role of the
police as protectors of the public. While the Norwegian interviewees commented on the
importance and value of human life, the Swedes exhibited a tendency to value the importance
of maintaining control. This feeling of being able to stay in control underpinned the
importance of being armed:
I don’t believe in the thinking that an unarmed police will get kinder criminals. It might be
so but [that way] we leave the control to the criminals whether they want to be nice or not.
If they are not then we are really in bad trouble if we are unarmed. … I don’t want to
hand over the control of the situation to the criminal.198
And another commented:
196
Kääriäinen, "Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries: A Multilevel Analysis."
Interviewee 13, Personal Interview. 23 June 2011
198
Interviewee 12, Personal Interview. 23 June 2011
197
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We don’t leave control of the situation to the bad guys. We have a fair chance of taking the
command. And I also believe that the public, that if an officer feels safe, then he is also a
safer officer for the public. I think a frightened police officer could also be a dangerous
one.199
This interviewee’s statement, that a strong and confident police officer has a greater chance of
fending off aggression, mirrors the literature.200 Buttle discusses confidence in terms of an
officer’s ability to fend off aggressors or take control in situations requiring defensive tactics.
Here, though, the interviewee attributes his sense of safety to the fact that he is permanently
armed.
There are differences of opinion in Sweden as to how the public perceive the armed
status of the police. The majority of the interviewees agreed that the fact that they were armed
was insignificant in terms of how the public might approach them in times of emergency or
for help. This was not the experience of a younger police officer (in age and tenure) who
commented on the fears of his girlfriend:
Many people are afraid of guns – they wouldn’t even hold a gun – they think it’s too scary.
And I know that my girlfriend … and I was an officer in the Swedish military before
[being a police officer] so she has been around uniformed people, officers and police
officers. But every time she gets stopped on the highway for routine control for alcohol she
gets scared. She gets scared of the police officers. Even though we have a nice smile it is the
uniform and everything and the gun that makes a distance between the people and police
officer.201
Another interviewee believed that the Swedish public were accustomed to their police wearing
a sidearm so that the question was a non-issue:
I think the public, they don’t look if we carry a gun or not. So I could probably work a year
in uniform without a gun and nobody would notice – from the public I mean. … That is
one of the reasons we have a pistol instead of a submachine gun – it’s discreet – but it’s the
hardest gun to shoot. It is much easier to shoot with a sub-machine gun, you are more
accurate with a sub-machine gun, but it looks bad.202
199
Interviewee 13, Personal Interview.
Philip Bonifacio, The Psychological Effects of Police Work : A Psychodynamic Approach, Criminal Justice and Public Safety
(New York: Plenum Press, 1991)., cited in John Buttle, "A Constructive Critique of the Officer Safety Programme Used in
England and Wales," Policing and Society 17.2 (2007).
201
Interviewee 9, Personal Interview. 22 June 2011
202
Interviewee 10, Personal Interview. 23 June 2011
200
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On replying to the question about arming the police with sub-machine guns203 (which is
customary in some European police forces and airport police throughout England and
Wales):
I think the public would think it was too much show of force. … Our sub-machine guns,
we have to get permission to get them out of the police station. And that has a certain
amount of time before we can get to the scene with sub-machine guns. And when you were
[sic] asking the supervisor if you can bring out the sub-machine gun, the real question is,
“can I have permission to be more accurate with my gun?” It’s not like it’s a nuclear
bazooka, it’s the same ammunition as the pistol but I can be more accurate.204
Their comments provide insights into several areas. First, they illustrate the consistent
sensitivity towards the increase in deployment or symbolism of force. While the interviewee
believes that the Swedish public are not concerned by the sight of police officers armed with
pistols, the fact that the sight of police with sub-machine guns might cause alarm validates the
concerns foreseen by others in Norway if Norwegian police were to become routinely armed.
Second, it is ironic that the interviewee feels constrained by the inadequacy of the pistol used
in service, calling into question its accuracy – perhaps in this instance the police are relying on
the symbolism of the pistol as an armed deterrent rather than it’s utility. The interviewees
agreed on the importance of image and how this can affect the nature of the police-public
relationship:
…remember when we changed uniform from the light blue shirt to the more modern [dark
shirt]. Immediately after, we get the question we look more aggressive but that was over in
half a year or so and the police officers that came after that never had the old uniform.
When I asked them they had never heard from the public that “oh you look so aggressive”.
… of course there will be people who will hesitate and look a little bit more concerned
about approaching the police, but that will disappear very shortly if you continue to be the
same police as you used to be.205
The final sentence from this interviewee is instructive as it articulates the question of the
increase ‘show’ of force yet also offers a solution; the police-public relationship will endure
provided that the police maintain legitimacy and trust of the public.
203
The reference to “sub-machine gun” may be an emotive term and its deployment by police questionable. A sub-machine gun
refers to a semi-automatic firearm which fires one round per trigger pull. A machine gun is a generic term to describe a firearm
which fires many rounds per trigger pull and the quantity depends on the duration the trigger is activated. The Swedish and
Norwegian police use MP5 sub-machine guns – refer to Appendix A2 for a picture.
204
Interviewee 10, Personal Interview.
205
Interviewee 13, Personal Interview.
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USE OF FIREARMS & TACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
All Swedish police officers are routinely armed and must carry a sidearm while on duty unless
specifically authorised not to do so.206 The use of firearms is authorised by a governmental
decree, which stipulates a ‘lawful authority’ to shoot to arrest, stop from escaping or
apprehend escaping offenders for a list of specified offences. Police are also entitled to use
firearms in ‘self defence’ where there is apparent danger posed by offenders, either to protect
their own lives or the lives of others. They also have the ability to use them in ‘emergency
situations’, such as to shoot an aggressive dog.207
A study of firearm incidents involving Swedish police between 1985 and 1998 by
Silverudd found that 80% of all shootings were justified for self-defence, 18% with lawful
authority and 2% in emergency responses.208 As with other Nordic countries, Swedish police
are required to fire warning shots – if possible – before firing at an offender. Of incidents
where shots were fired at a person, 54% consisted of just a warning shot, 15% consisted of a
warning shot followed by effective fire, and 31% consisted of just effective fire. Shooting is not
limited to firing at a person; despite officers not being trained to do so, officers shot at vehicles
decamping with offenders, with 90% of incidents occurring without warning shots. The
median distance for warning shots was six metres but three metres for effective fire.
Swedish officers are trained to limit harm as much as possible and are taught to
initially shoot at an offender’s legs. If the situation becomes one of self-defence then they are
taught to shoot at an offender’s chest area.209 The Silverudd study indicated that of the
offenders hit by a bullet, 14% died. With regard to police officers, 10% of incidents resulted in
an officer being physically injured210 and only one incident occurred in which officers were
killed. In 1999 the Malexander incident resulted in the deaths of two police officers shot dead
by a group of three bank robbers using the officers’ own firearms.
Knutsson categorised the Silverudd data into groups of a similar type of threat,
highlighting the average distance between police and offender, location, the incidence of
effective fire and injuries to police or offender. His table is reproduced below as Table 4 and
offers a useful insight into the behaviour of Swedish officers.
206
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in Sweden."
Ibid.
208
The study was conducted by former Swedish police superintendant Sven Silverudd using data from 430 incidents as cited in
ibid.
209
Ibid.
210
There is no reference to psychological injuries or harm in the Silverudd study.
207
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Table 4: Sweden - Average Yearly Incidents211
Average
incidents
p.a.
Average
distance
Indoor
Effective
Fire
Injuries
to Police
Injuries
to
offender
Feared armed (n=82)
5.6
11.6 m
7.7%
20.9%
0%
16%
Armed with firearm (n=67)
4.7
19.3 m
13.8%
63.1%
6.1%
36.1%
Threatened with knife or sharp object (n=56)
4
6.1 m
23.2%
43.6%
0%
34.5%
Assaulted with knife or sharp object (n=59)
4.1
3.3 m
39.7%
73.6%
15.3%
71.4%
Assaulted with vehicle (n=68)
4.4
5.1 m
3.3%
91.7%
3%
8.9%
Of all the incidents recorded, the highest numbers involved an unarmed offender being
perceived to be armed (5.6 incidents p.a.) yet this group of incidents has the lowest number of
effective fire results. One explanation of this could be that Swedish officers are experiencing
an unnecessarily heightened level of perceived threat given that the offenders are unarmed.
The second highest group is where an offender is armed with a firearm. The outcome of two
thirds of incidents in this group results in officers shooting effective fire. Sharp object assaults
and threats are next and occur at the same rate annually.
It is interesting to note the average distance between an officer and offender in an
actual assault is half the distance of that of a threatened assault. It could be that offenders are
not ‘threatening’ the officer in the first instance, perhaps to reduce the distance between both
to entice a fight. Or, offenders are being chased into a building with reduced area. Finally, an
offender is most likely to be effectively shot if an actual assault on an officer occurs (shown in
the assault with knife and vehicle categories).
A snapshot of police shootings – Skåne police district
The following data comes from research into police shootings (n=77) between 1985-2004 in
the Skåne police district in southern Sweden. The data was collected by a police tactical
firearms trainer and provides a unique insight into police incidents. The police officer
involved in each incident was interviewed at the completion of procedural and criminal
investigations. The Skåne researcher believed that this allowed for a deep level of reflection
and self-assessment without the fear of recrimination or sanction. For instance, interview
questions included subjective self-assessments relating to ‘mental readiness’ and ‘panic’
shootings; topics that would arguably be omitted from discussions with criminal investigators,
departmental or outside interviewers.
The first table (Table 5) shows that nearly 60% of shooting incidents involve firstresponders as opposed to specialist squads. This is significant; it suggests that the majority of
211
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in Sweden," 111.
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incidents do not initially present as serious firearms incidents which would trigger the
deployment of specialists. Equally, it could be that incidents are being discovered by officers
and require immediate action. The second insight is that over half of all incidents were limited
to the firing of a warning shot and only about one third resulted in shots being fired directly at
an offender. The most logical deduction is that a warning shot resolved the incident and
enabled police to gain control of the situation (although, as the data is silent on the capture or
evasion of an offender, this cannot be assumed to be the case in all incidents).
Table 5: Skåne Incidents - General factors
General factors
Type of shooting
Type of patrol
Officer Sex
Number of officers involved in shooting
Percentage
Warning shots fired (not at offender)
47%
Targeted effective shots fired
35%
Warning shots fired at offender
10%
Accidental shots
8%
First responder unit (patrol, traffic, dog)
59%
SWAT units
19%
Other
22%
Male
94%
Female (comprising of 19% staff)
6%
One officer
87%
Two officers
11%
Three or more officers
2%
Table 6 below focuses on environmental factors and it is interesting to learn that twothirds of incidents occurred during evening and night shifts. Table 7 (below) illustrates the
behaviour of the officer: 82% of incidents were attributed to acting in self-defence, in 63% of
incidents officers did not initially have their weapon drawn (it was still holstered), 56%
occurred where the officer was not yet mentally prepared to shoot, 42% occurred with a
distance of 0-3 metres and 50% occurred between 0-3 seconds of the officer registering a
‘threat’ from the offender. Taken together, these statistics suggest that the majority of
incidents occur very quickly requiring immediate reaction from the officer. More
interestingly, of the shots fired in self-defence, 53% were fired in a ‘panicked’ state rather than
a controlled state.
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Table 6: Skåne Incidents - Environmental factors
Environmental factors
Percentage
Location
Indoor or outdoor
86%
or 14%
Outdoor locations
Urban or Rural
79%
or 21%
Use of cover and concealment
Yes or no
17%
or 83%
Lighting conditions
Dark
65%
Daylight
24%
Dusk/dawn
11%
Night: (midnight – 8am)
44%
Evening: (4pm – midnight)
39%
Day: (8am – 4pm)
17%
Shift
Table 7: Skåne Incidents - Officer factors
Officer factors
Reason for officer firing
Percentage
Self defence
82%
Other (accidental, shooting of dogs or the like)
12%
To affect arrest
5%
Self-defence and to affect arrest
1%
Weapon: in holster or drawn
37%
or 63%
Mentally prepared to shoot: yes or no
46%
or 56%
All shootings – controlled or panicked
63%
or 37%
Shots in self defence – controlled or panicked
47%
or 53%
Warning shots – controlled or panicked
72%
or 26%
0 – 3 metres
42%
3 – 7 metres
32%
7 – 15 metres
19%
More than 15 metres
7%
0 – 3 seconds
50%
4 – 10 seconds
23%
10 – 60 seconds
19%
More than 1 minute
8%
Movement
Officer still or moving
37%
or 63%
Pistol grip
Both hands or one hand
71%
or 29%
Sights used
Shots fired in self defence – sights used or not
43%
or 57%
All shots – sights used or not
42%
or 58%
Warning shots – sights used or not
15%
or 57%
Warning shot followed by actual shot – sights
used or not
77%
or 23%
Preparation
Shots fired ‘in control’ or ‘panic’
Distance between officer and
offender212
Time scale (between threat and first
shot fired
212
Adjusted to exclude a one-off extraordinary event.
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Two explanations emerge for this. It could be that the policing environment is so
unpredictable that routine incidents can rapidly escalate into armed situations, without
warning or without giving cause for police to predict such an outcome. Conversely it could be
that an officer’s knowledge of being armed decreases risk-perception by masking risk factors
or warnings – a firearm increases the officer’s sense of safety. Squires suggests that providing a
firearm to police increases an officer’s ‘presumption of capacity’ to effectively deal with armed
incidents. The officer believes that an ability to deliver deadly force enhances his or her
safety.213 This in turn leads to an inevitable illusion of safety. But when the final set of data is
considered (Table 8), it becomes apparent that the majority of incidents start out at a low
level: burglary, disturbance and high-speed vehicle pursuit. These normally would not arouse
suspicion that the responding officers would encounter an armed offender. This suggests a
remarkable conclusion, that most shooting incidents occur as a result of low-level incidents,
not the type of incidents that specialist armed units might be deployed to, such as armed
robberies, serious assaults or hostage/siege situations.
Table 8: Skåne Incidents - Offender factors
Offender factors
Original incident type
Shooting target
Offender movement
Offender type of weapon
Percentage
Burglary
16%
Disturbance
15%
Pursuit
14%
Person
83%
Vehicle
12%
Other
5%
Towards officer
52%
Standing still
23%
Moving sideways from officer
19%
Moving away from officer
6%
Believed to be armed but found to be unarmed
25%
Sharp-edged weapon
22%
Firearm
20%
Vehicle
11%
Blunt weapon
5%
The Skåne data suggests a useful means of understanding the types of shooting
incidents occurring within Sweden. It also provides a framework to help build the common
scenario encountered by police which would result in an armed incident. Consider the
following narrative:
213
Peter Squires, Personal Interview. 2011
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A first response police unit is called to attend a suspected burglary or some other
disturbance. The location is in an urban area and the officer(s) have to enter the location
premises. The officer is either working an evening shift or night shift and it is dark. As
the officer approaches or enters the premises he will have a weapon drawn, as a
precaution, holding it with both hands but will not be mentally prepared to shoot (there
is no formed intent to shoot). As the officer moves into the building he sees an offender
moving towards him. He believes that the offender is armed – he can see some sort of
weapon in the offender’s hand – the distance between them will be closing probably
about three metres. The officer reacts – most likely in panic – and shoots at the offender,
not using firearm sights.214
This hypothetical narrative shows how a common incident, such as attending a suspected
burglary can escalate. This type of incident is commonplace in every policing jurisdiction; the
difference lies in the perception of threat and the officer’s ability to counter the threat. For
instance, it is extremely unlikely that a Norwegian patrol would seek (and receive) permission
to draw and carry a firearm for the purpose of safety in attending this ‘routine’ type of
incident. The perception of threat, therefore, becomes an important factor in shaping the
police response.
Tactical observations
The Swedish interviewees were consistent in their belief that the armed status of their police
force was neither a problem nor a topic of media speculation. Responses to the possibility of
disarming the police, and moving to a model similar to the British or Norwegian models, were
not positive. There was a view that the policing environment had become dangerous; that
disarming the police would result in an increase in injuries or death. A junior officer
commented:
When [police] meet a group of 10 to 15 quite heavy criminals it has no effect if you pull
out your baton or pepper spray. The only way to say them [sic] is to pull the gun, and fire
a warning shot or something like that. … I am feeling a little bit safer when I put my gun
on because there are more situations that I can handle.215
Clearly, the officer believes that the firearm increases his safety-level as it gives him an added
capacity to deal with a large, violent group. The tactics of an unarmed police patrol would
most certainly be different; they would most likely choose not to engage with such a large
group based on the assessment that their tactical ability would amount to a force deficit. An
214
215
This narrative has been constructed by the researcher.
Interviewee 9, Personal Interview.
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alternative approach would be to wait for additional staff. In Norway the view is that some
police are in favour of arming because they fear the lack of available staff:
I think the main thing – I don’t know if there are more police officers want to be armed
today – was people feel the need, it’s the lack of police officers because … all the resources
have gone to other things, we are fewer police officers in the street today, have to deal with
more people.216
This discussion illustrates a potential risk factor in that armed police are more likely to engage
in riskier encounters than unarmed staff, either out of feeling an added sense of safety, or an
understanding that there might not be sufficient police to deal with a problem. Interviewee 9
commented on the ineffective nature of options such as pepper spray and expandable batons.
COMPARISONS AMONGST OTHER NORDIC COUNTRIES
Statistics collected on Swedish police shooting incidents varies from other Nordic countries.
Unlike the practice in Denmark, Finland and Norway, when police threaten to use, but do not
discharge a firearm in Sweden, the incident is not reported to authorities. A comparison of
events amongst the four Nordic Countries is shown below in Figure 7.217 The red bars denote
the annualised police use of firearms rate per million inhabitants of each country, adjusted for
population (Denmark = 2.6; Finland = 2.5; Norway = 0.5; & Sweden = 2.9 incidents per year).
The orange bars indicate the quantity of threats made. It is clear that Sweden has a similar
number of shooting incidents compared with Denmark and Finland.
50
40
30
20
10
0
Denmark
Finland
Shots fired
Norway
Sweden
Threatened
Figure 7: Annual average number of incidents where police officers in service have used firearms for threat or effective fire per
million inhabitants, Denmark (1996-2006), Finland (1997-2006), Norway (1996-2006) and Sweden (1996-2004) 218
216
Interviewee 6, Personal Interview.
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries."
218
Ibid., 120.
217
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The disparity between the number of the shots fired in Norway and other countries is of
particular interest as it suggests a restraining effect created by the Norwegian arming policy. A
reasonable conclusion can be made that the restriction placed on Norwegian officers in
deploying arms reduces the number of incidents where shots are fired. This is more striking
when you consider that Norway has nearly double the incidents of Finland yet
proportionately less shots fired. Nonetheless, despite the lack of data on threats, the quantities
of shots fired are consistent amongst the routinely armed countries. The data also illustrates
the concerns raised by the Danish police – discussed previously in the Norwegian case study –
where there was a concern about the high number of firearms incidents.
Deaths from police shooting produce a slightly different picture.
Figure 8 shows population adjusted annualised shootings amongst the Nordic countries
Swedish shootings result in fewer deaths than in Denmark but more than in Finland or
Norway. Deaths in England and the USA are also included to act as a benchmark.
1.3
1.24
1.2
1.1
1
annual average deaths
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.184
0.112
0.1
0
Denmark
0.04
0.056
Finland
Norway
0.044
Sweden
England
USA
Figure 8: Annual average number of deaths by police shooting
per million inhabitants (1996-2006) 219
It is interesting to compare deaths by shooting in England and Finland. The English Police,
ostensibly unarmed, cause more deaths than Finland per capita which has an armed police
force. Finland, which has a routinely armed police force, has less deaths that the Norway. In
the end, this revealing factor disputes the proposition that a routinely armed police force will
result in more deaths. The data thus far indicates that deaths relate to police departmental
firearms policies and perception of threat, as opposed to availability of firearms.
219
Knutsson "Police Use of Firearms – a Comparison"
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EMERGENT FACTORS
In summary, there was a general sense from all interviewees that the armed status of the
Swedish police did not negatively impact on the police-public relationship. They
acknowledged sensitivity about an increase in an aggressive appearance. When comparing the
views of the Swedish interviewees with the Norwegians, there was an overwhelming sense that
the Swedish felt an obligation to maintain control of a situation and not cede control to the
‘bad guys’. In comparison, the Norwegians took the view that it was better if no one got hurt,
as the ‘bad guys’ would come to police attention again. Also revealing, from the Skåne data, is
the high proportion of ‘panic-shooting’ occurring in situations of self-defence in Sweden.
4.5 Emerging Issues
PERCEPTION OF THREAT – CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
One of the major questions arising from the case studies is the variance in how officers
perceive threats. A recent examination of different policing styles and the use of force has
found that an officer’s perception of threat is determined by cultural and environmental
factors.220 The study was constructed using the following scenario; officers approach a
‘suspicious’ vehicle with tinted windows, the officers detect the smell of cannabis, but then the
vehicle drives off, the police engage in a pursuit, stop the vehicle, and passengers decamp with
a firearm. The scenario was played out to focus groups of police officers in Australia, Brazil,
England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Venezuela.
Discussions amongst the focus groups provided a number of useful insights. The
most significant was how threat perception differed in each country. Officers from Latin
America consistently agreed that their initial approach required weapons to be drawn, as it
was more than likely that the occupants of the vehicle would be in possession of firearms (and
some even believed that they would be in possession of grenades). This, of course, was not an
option for unarmed English officers. Discussions amongst the English officers centred on how
and at what point armed response units should be requested or deployed. (The English focus
groups included both routine unarmed frontline police and members of an ARV). Dutch
police officers, which are routinely armed, agreed that their initial approach would be without
firearms drawn. The study concluded that each focus group apportioned risk or threat based
on their direct experience of similar real-world circumstances.
220
P.A.J. Waddington, Otto Adang, David Baker, Christopher Birkbeck, Thomas Feltes, Luis Gerardo Gabaldón, Eduardo Paes
Machado and Philip Stenning, "Singing the Same Tune? International Continuities and Discontinuities in How Police Talk
About Using Force," Crime, Law and Social Change 52.2 (2008).
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This level of diversity, based on the cultural background (not to mention social
background and history) of each focus group, undermines somewhat the views that armed
police results in the forceful style of American ‘gun-driven’ “dirty harry” policing: it is
possible for police to be armed and approach a stopped vehicle without weapons drawn. The
diversity is well considered in the conclusion of Waddington et al.; police from Europe and
Australia were wary of provoking a confrontation – they believed that their initial behaviour
should be low-key so that the incident could be managed without the need for force. The
Latin American police, however, showed no such appreciation; they believed that
confrontation was inevitable.221 A most curious observation found was in the difference of
tactics discussed by the unarmed and armed English police. The unarmed police tended to
favour chasing after the occupants of the vehicle once the vehicle had stopped whereas the
armed police did not. They seemed more aware of the risks of chasing an armed offender once
a sightline has been lost.
221
Ibid.
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Chapter 5 – Interpretation & Analysis
5.1 Introduction
Throughout the preceding chapters, risk factors to the police-public relationship have
emerged through the study of the literature, field interviews and case studies. The purpose of
this chapter is to discuss and evaluate the risk factors identified. It begins with a brief
discussion of two main themes that have emerged from the research findings. The risk factors
are then considered in terms of how they might affect the police-public relationship through
threats to police legitimacy, threats to police safety and threats to public safety.
5.2 Interpretation
There are two prominent themes emerging from the research findings that suggest a way to
understand potential impacts on the police-public relationship. Firstly, that for the
relationship to remain functional, the police must maintain a high level of police legitimacy.
This is evident in the work of Kääriäinen, Moll, Punch, Rappert, Reiner, Squires and
Kennison, and Waddington.222 Also applicable, in jurisdictions that are based on the English
‘modern policing’ model, is the ‘policing by consent’ approach. All the interviewees
consistently referred to this during the field research as an important part of the police-public
relationship. Secondly, that the degree of police legitimacy can be affected by the manner in
which firearms are used by the police.223 For instance, Punch, and Squires and Kennison,
suggest that the de Menezes incident has the potential to permanently damage the legitimacy
of the English police.224 In the de Menezes shooting, the Kratos policy dictated how the
firearms were to be used, and it was the shooting officer’s belief that de Menezes posed a real
threat.225 The data from the case studies has also shown that the link between police policies
and fear perception plays a part in the incidence of police shootings. For instance, the nonroutinely armed status of the Norwegian police results in fewer shooting incidents compared
to Denmark and Sweden (see Figure 7, p.60) but more deaths than in routinely armed
222
Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?.", Kääriäinen, "Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries: A Multilevel
Analysis.", Moll, Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles,
ibid, Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Rappert, "Constructions of Legitimate Force. The Case
of Cs Sprays.", Reiner, The Politics of the Police, Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response.
223
Kääriäinen, "Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries: A Multilevel Analysis.", Rappert, "Constructions of Legitimate
Force. The Case of Cs Sprays.", Waddington, Adang, Baker, Birkbeck, Feltes, Gerardo Gabaldón, Paes Machado and Stenning,
"Singing the Same Tune? International Continuities and Discontinuities in How Police Talk About Using Force."
224
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing,
Firearms and Armed Response.
225
Independent Police Complaints, Stockwell One : Investigation into the Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes at Stockwell
Underground Station on 22 July 2005.
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Finland. These themes, and the way in which they interact, are shown in a graphical
representation in Figure 9.
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Figure 9: Factors affecting the relationship between the police and the public
This interpretation is used to guide the analytical process. First, risk factors to the
police-public relationship are categorised in relation to the potential ways they may affect
police legitimacy (Table 9). Those risk factors not likely to affect police legitimacy are
arranged into two subsequent groups: risks to police safety (Table 10) and risks to public
safety (Table 11). It is acknowledged that risks to police safety may have an indirect bearing
on how police officers perceive risk, however, for the purposes of the analysis they are
grouped separately.
Table 9: Risk factors affecting police legitimacy
Threats to police legitimacy
Source
5.3.1
Increase the barrier between the public and police
Literature, England, Norway
5.3.2
Frustrate or negatively impact upon the ability to police by consent
Literature, England, Norway
5.3.3
Change from unarmed policing styles to use of more force and becoming more
Literature, England
militarized; Unnecessary increase in police weaponisation and militarization
5.3.4
Increase in unlawful or accidental deaths
Literature
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Table 10: Risk factors affecting police safety
Threats to police safety
Source
5.4.1
Policing is no less safe than other work environments
Literature
5.4.2
The illusion of extended capacity and safety
England, Norway
5.4.3
Police themselves will become victims of shooting by their own weapon, that not
Literature, England, Norway
all English officers are suited to using firearms and the cost of training would lead
to a financial burden
5.4.4
An increased chance of police officer suicide
England, Norway
5.4.5
Arming with a pistol will not make police safer as most criminals who use firearms
Literature
will use a rifle or shotgun; the arms race
Table 11: Risk factors affecting public safety
Threats to public safety
Source
5.5.1
Increased use of firearms on the mentally ill and ‘suicide-by-cop’
Literature, Norway, Sweden
5.5.2
Increase in police shootings
Literature, Norway, Sweden
5.5.3
A decrease in the sense of safety of society
Norway
5.3 Threats to police legitimacy
Moll suggests that in a democracy, social contract theory explains how society delegates
policing functions to an independent, specialised and public body, governed under a
legislative framework.226 The literature on policing also shows how the public’s level of
satisfaction is linked to the degree of trust it has in the police, as well as the police’s degree of
legitimacy.227 The following set of risk factors to the police-public relationship is discussed in
terms of their ability to affect police legitimacy.
DISCUSSION
5.3.1. Increasing the barrier between the public and police
Concern that barriers would be created between the police and the public is one of the most
common reasons cited against routinely arming the police. This concern was identified in the
literature, and spontaneously emerged as discussion points in the English and Norwegian
interviews. Reasons given in support of this concern include a belief that many people are
afraid of firearms and ‘the gun’ – this was articulated by Swedish Interviewee 9 (section 4.4).
226
Moll, Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles.
Kääriäinen, "Why Do the Finns Trust the Police?.", Kääriäinen, "Trust in the Police in 16 European Countries: A Multilevel
Analysis.", Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
227
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This concern was considered unfounded by the majority of Swedish interviewees.
Police in Sweden have been armed for decades and the Swedish interviewees felt that it did
not inhibit their ability to relate cordially or compassionately with the public. Some observed
that the Swedish public did not notice firearms worn by officers. Waddington remarks that
the current trend of wearing highly-visible jackets, stab resistant vests, expandable batons,
pepper spray canisters and rigid handcuffs, makes it virtually impossible for members of the
public to observe a holster holding a black pistol.228
Police officer interviewees conceded that police behave differently and that perhaps
their demeanour becomes more serious and macho when armed, and that officers may keep
their distance to ensure weapon retention. One Swedish officer commented that his
demeanour was not affected by the fact that he was armed with a pistol; he considered his
behaviour was affected instead by the surroundings or circumstances he found himself in. He
stated that he had no qualms approaching and hugging a member of the public, in order to
offer support and compassion, and that he did not feel unapproachable. Both Swedish and
Norwegian officers agreed, that when they do deploy firearms, they can appear more serious
and less approachable but considered this was likely to be due to the situation they were
dealing with, as opposed to their armed status. This is a key revelation; people in Norway (and
New Zealand) observe different demeanours in armed police officers and attribute this to the
fact they are wearing firearms, not because of the incident they are dealing with.
There was a consistent view amongst the interviewees that if police in Norway became
routinely armed, or in England for that matter, there would be an initial period of public
‘discomfort’ and uncertainty experienced. However it was considered that this would only be
a transitional effect; once the public became accustomed to seeing police wearing a pistol, then
any discomfort would recede provided that there wasn’t an increase in police aggression that
would affect police legitimacy. While Sweden’s police are ranked below Norway’s in the level
of police trust (see Figure 2, p.33) the former still ranks in the top group above the rest of
Europe. Furthermore, both Finland and Denmark rank first equal with the highest levels of
police trust, and both countries have routinely armed police. This shows that there is no direct
detrimental link between the armed status of the police and the level of public trust in
policing. Taking all these factors into account, this suggests that it is unlikely that the routine
arming of the New Zealand Police would necessarily create a long-term distancing in the
police-public relationship.
228
Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
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5.3.2. Frustrate or negatively impact upon the ability to police by consent
‘Policing by consent’ is shown in the literature, and Norwegian and English case studies, as a
defining feature of Anglo-Saxon policing.229 Bott and Buttle suggest that it is also a defining
feature of New Zealand policing.230 Consent can be threatened by several factors, including a
break down of police legitimacy or trust, and the emergence of militarisation or authoritarian
regimes.231
It has been suggested that police reliance on the ‘threat of the firearm’ may erode
police legitimacy because the public no longer explicitly consents to being policed; its
members are ‘forced’ to submit to police by their fear of being shot. However, Swedish
interviewees believed that they are able to ‘police by consent’ while routinely armed. It was
also found that variances in risk perception existed amongst routinely armed police of
different countries; this resulted in differing thresholds being required before a firearm was
likely to be taken from the officer’s holster in response to different scenarios (refer section
4.5).232
Some commentators, like Buttle, argue that policing by consent means that police
should be able to cause the public to comply entirely through acquiescence:
In New Zealand we have a style of policing that is termed policing by consent; in that the
public trust and respect for the office of constable enables officers to effect arrests without
recourse to firearms. Basically this style of policing eschews firearms as a symbolic gesture
that the police trust the public with their safety, which in turn facilitates public trust of the
police. It is this bond of trust that enables policing to be conducted through the strength of
the officers’ personality and their ability to embody and project the perception of
authority.233
There appears to be very little support in the literature, or evidence from the case studies, to
favour this position. The Swedish officers believed that disarming the Swedish Police would
not result in ‘nicer’ criminals, nor lead to a disarmament of criminals. They were largely
concerned with the influx of criminals from countries such as the Baltic States or Eastern
Europe whom the interviewees considered had different attitudes to firearms to the general
Swedish public. The Swedish officers also believed that a disarmed police force would
inevitably lose the ability to maintain order and control in the current environment. Bittner
229
Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A Comparative International Analysis, Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police.", Reiner, The
Politics of the Police, Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response.
230
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police.", Bott, The Police Arms Race.
231
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Rappert, "Constructions of Legitimate Force. The Case of
Cs Sprays.", Reiner, The Politics of the Police, Interviewee 22, Personal Interview, Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? :
Policing, Firearms and Armed Response.
232
Waddington, Adang, Baker, Birkbeck, Feltes, Gerardo Gabaldón, Paes Machado and Stenning, "Singing the Same Tune?
International Continuities and Discontinuities in How Police Talk About Using Force."
233
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police."
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suggests that policing ‘works’ because of the implicit threat to use force. The threat motivates
compliance as the subject understands that noncompliance will most likely result in the actual
use of force, and that the level of force cannot be overcome.234 The degree of force available to
police must therefore be greater than the ability of the subject to resist. If not, police suffer a
force deficit and the utility of the threat diminishes. This suggests the threat has to be more
than symbolic; the threat must be a real threat of restraint. Reiner observes that ‘policing by
consent’ does not require universal acceptance for it to exist or work; but police authority
must be at least accepted by the majority.235 This means however, that there will be a minority
that refuse to acquiesce, and so the police must have the actual ability to overcome their
resistance. This is no different to the current situation; the police have armed options to use
force to gain compliance, such as pepper sprays and batons, both of which can be lethal. The
firearm serves the same function as the other weapons worn and deployed by police, but to a
stronger degree. Waddington’s 2008 study shows that the routine arming of a police force
doesn’t necessarily result in routine police officers un-holstering their firearm when
approaching a member of the public.
In consideration of the New Zealand context, there is no evidence in the data to
suggest that New Zealand Police’s ability to ‘police by consent’ will be hindered by becoming
routinely armed. New Zealand police officers already have recourse to use weapons, such as
firearms or even pepper spray, if the circumstances are justified. A move to routine arming
moves the firearms closer to the officer, from the police station or patrol vehicle to the
officer’s holster.
5.3.3. Change from unarmed policing styles to those using more force and leading to an increase
in weaponisation.
It is important to clarify the reasoning for routinely arming a police force. The position posed
by the New Zealand Police Association is that the routine arming of the New Zealand police
will increase police safety.236 A pistol therefore, will address the force deficit when a police
officer is confronted with an armed offender. It is not the expectation that a pistol will be the
primary weapon deployed, when dealing with firearms incident-driven events. Current
training promotes the use of semi-automatic rifles as the preferred tactical option when
dealing with firearm incidents. It is not assumed that police officers in New Zealand will be
routinely deployed with rifles, as in some other routinely armed jurisdictions. However, some
literature indicates a concern that even the pistol will be increasingly used in circumstances
234
Bittner, "Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of the Police."
Reiner, The Politics of the Police.
236
New Zealand Police Association, "Police Association Conference Calls for General Arming of Police."
235
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which would not warrant it, described by Buttle as ‘mission creep’ and ‘threshold creep’.237
Keith Locke, amongst others, refers to this as the ‘American’ style of policing.238
Buttle established that after the introduction of pepper sprays in England and Wales,
officers relaxed the deployment threshold of the spray.239 He argues that a similar ‘threshold
creep’ would occur after the introduction of routine armament. American research by Sousa,
Ready and Ault, supports this view, indicating that officers equipped with Conducted Energy
Devices (CEDs)240 deploy them in preference to other weapons such as pepper spray or
batons. The group gathered data through observation of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Department during defensive training scenarios. Officers were split into two groups; both had
handcuffs, pepper spray, baton and a pistol, but the test group also had a CED. During a
scenario where officers were confronted with a verbally or physically aggressive subject, the
majority of the control group deployed pepper spray or baton. The majority of the test group
deployed the CED instead.241 However, when confronted with the lethal resistance scenario,
the majority of the test group chose the CED instead of a firearm. The study therefore
suggests an increased use of force during low-level incidents but lower levels of force than
available in lethal scenarios.
What is driving police decisions to use an increased level of force? Waddington
suggests that lower level tactical responses, such as hand tactics, pepper spray or batons, are
less advantageous to the officer, subject and public. The sight of officers grappling with an
offender not only looks bad, which runs the risk of negatively affecting police legitimacy, but
also increases the chances of injuries to officer and offender.242 It has also been found that
police confrontations which require more than one tactical response, such as an attempted
handcuffing, then pepper spray, then the baton, can ultimately produce a more aggressive
subject.243 With this in mind, the choice of the Las Vegas group to deploy a CED in preference
to pepper spray or baton, could well reflect its utility: a quicker rate of compliance; a reduced
risk of officer or offender injury; and consequently a higher degree of police legitimacy.
Furthermore, the choice to deploy a CED in preference to a firearm suggests that ‘threshold
237
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police.", Buttle, "The Shift from Defensive to Offensive Policing: Cs Spray and the Use of
Force.", Buttle, "A Constructive Critique of the Officer Safety Programme Used in England and Wales.", William Sousa, Justin
Ready and Michael Ault, "The Impact of Tasers on Police Use-of-Force Decisions: Findings from a Randomized Field-Training
Experiment," Journal of Experimental Criminology 6.1 (2010).
238
Locke, Policing Bill - Third Reading, Parliametrary Debate.. Opponents to routine arming of police forces commonly cite the
myth of American policing styles in their arguments. Simon Jenkins suggests that possession of firearms by police encourages
“the ‘Hollywood Cop’ police image at the expense of community policing”, see Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing,
Firearms and Armed Response 106-07. Also see references to “Dirty Harry” in Edwards, Changing Policing Theories for 21st
Century Societies 171-72.
239
Buttle, "The Shift from Defensive to Offensive Policing: Cs Spray and the Use of Force."
240
The most common CED is TASER
241
Sousa, Ready and Ault, "The Impact of Tasers on Police Use-of-Force Decisions: Findings from a Randomized Field-Training
Experiment."
242
Wolf, Mesloh, Henych and Thompson, "Police Use of Force and the Cumulative Force Factor."
243
Ibid.
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creep’ can work in the favour of the offender and does not mean officers will always use all the
force available to them.
The majority of Norwegian interviewees believed routine arming will inevitably lead
to a corresponding increase use of firearms by police. Statistics show that Norway has a lower
shooting rate than the other routinely armed Nordic countries, and that the shooting rate of
the other Nordic countries is consistent between them (Figure 7, p.60). It is possible that the
Norwegian policy results in a restraining effect; the officer’s ability to deploy firearms is
limited by a higher authority. Equally, the character of the Norwegian criminal environment
could affect the comparative shooting rates: it could be dissimilar to the other countries and
therefore be producing a reduced number of ‘firearm-worthy’ events. It is the researcher’s
view that there are some differences in the criminal environment; the Norwegian interviewees
have remarked that that crime pressures experienced in Sweden over the past two decades
have only recently appeared in Norway. Swedish interviewees suggest that they are facing
increasing pressures from European migration and movement due to their border proximities
and Norway has been shielded from these problems by its geography.
One way to measure comparative criminal environments is to look at homicide rates.
It is accepted that this is a rather crude measure, however it does provide value in that
comparisons give insight into local trends and contexts.244 The homicide rates of the Nordic
countries, England, New Zealand, and the United Sates are shown below (Figure 10).245
6
5.57
5.5
5
100,000 population
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.24
2.5
2
1.5
0.99
0.80
1
1.01
1.28
1.48
0.5
0
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Sweden
NZ
England
USA
Figure 10: Average Annual Homicide Rates 2003-2008 sourced from United Nations data
(Norway, New Zealand and England do not have routinely armed police forces).
When comparing the homicide data amongst the Nordic countries, it becomes apparent that
crime pressures affecting Denmark, Norway and Sweden are broadly similar, whereas the
rates in Finland are significantly higher. So, accepting all other things are equal, it could be
concluded that the restraining effect of Norwegian policy probably impacts upon the shooting
244
S. McPhedran, J. Baker and P. Singh, "Firearm Homicide in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand: What Can We Learn from
Long-Term International Comparisons?," Journal of Interpersonal Violence 26.2 (2010).
245
Data sourced from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (http://data.un.org/).
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rate (Figure 7, p.60). The rates of Denmark and Sweden are very close but it is noteworthy
that the Finnish rate is more than double the other Nordic countries. (A possible explanation
for the high Finnish homicide rate could be due to its large border with Russia and associated
crime pressures originating there.)
Despite the high homicide rate, Finland had a dramatically lower number of shooting
incidents than Denmark.246 Knutsson suggests that the low incident rate in Finland is a result
of police not having to fire warning shots. This results in a higher threshold to deploy,
threaten and fire, than the other countries, and this reduces the decision-making process
resulting in quicker decisions.247
This discussion highlights the high degree of variability in how firearms are being
used by routinely armed police forces. Interpretation of the current Norwegian policy suggests
a link between the restraining policy and the number of incidents and deaths. Equally,
evaluation of the Finnish policy not to fire warning shots suggests that it has a restraining
effect on the incidence of shootings. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that in addition to
the availability of firearms, specific police firearms policies can have an effective impact on
their use. Similarly, both the English and Las Vegas studies discussed in this section suggest
that officers will increase or decrease their use of weapons in confrontations according to their
perceptions of risk.
Consequently, it cannot be deduced that routine armament will result in the use of
more force by New Zealand Police. Waddington’s 2008 study found that there were cultural
variations as to when officers chose to un-holster their firearm; German and Dutch officers
preferred to keep their weapon holstered while police from Latin America chose not to do
so.248 Therefore, the concerns expressed by Buttle and Locke, of threshold creep and the
inevitability of American style policing, are largely unfounded; they are not necessarily going
to occur in New Zealand should the police become routinely armed.
5.3.4. Legitimacy challenged through increase of unlawful deaths or accidental deaths
Accidental deaths, or unlawful deaths, can challenge police legitimacy and professionalism.249
There was limited data from Norway and Sweden about unlawful or accidental deaths and
how this might affect police legitimacy. Discussions with interviewees generally revolved
around excessive use of force, such as cases of deaths caused by ‘sleeper-holds’ or positional
246
The lack of data from Sweden makes a direct comparison more difficult.
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries."
248
Waddington, Adang, Baker, Birkbeck, Feltes, Gerardo Gabaldón, Paes Machado and Stenning, "Singing the Same Tune?
International Continuities and Discontinuities in How Police Talk About Using Force."
249
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Rappert, "Constructions of Legitimate Force. The Case of
Cs Sprays.", Reiner, The Politics of the Police, Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response,
Waddington, "Armed and Unarmed Policing.", Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
247
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asphyxia in Norway. However the majority of interviewees were aware of the shooting of Jean
Charles de Menezes at the Stockwell Underground Station, London, in July 2005.
Punch observed that the shooting of de Menezes was “one of the most serious
blunders in British Policing” and identified that such shootings have the potential to
destabilise the police-public relationship.250 The de Menezes shooting was a product of police
fear perception and police policy: the police feared that he was a suicide bomber and the
Kratos policy provided a process for the police to take action. In New Zealand, the death of
Halatau Naitoko in 2009 has raised similar concerns about police firearms policy. While de
Menezes was shot deliberately, albeit due to mistaken identity, Naitoko was killed accidentally
during a police incident. The New Zealand Coroner criticised the police in relation to this
event, finding insufficient training of attending police officers.251
In the Skåne data, officers showed a tendency to un-holster their pistol when
responding to certain types of incidents that would routinely be responded to by unarmed
police forces. The Skåne data also showed a high incidence of panic shootings or shootings
made before an officer was mentally prepared to shoot. This shows the pressure of making
shooting decisions, in situations where an armed police officer must make decisions very
quickly. Knutsson considered the decision making process when he observed the low rate of
police shooting in Finland. He concluded that the lack of the requirement to fire a warning
shot eased the decision making process and reduced the number of shootings.252 The Skåne
data shows that despite the physical preparation of an officer to shoot, by un-holstering the
firearm, the decision to shoot can occur extremely quickly and unexpectedly, as evidenced by
the high number of panic shots fired. This supports the concern that ‘un-prepared’ shooting
may lead to errors, which in turn leads to increased accidental or unlawful deaths.
It is interesting to observe that it only takes one case of accidental or unlawful death,
such as the de Menezes or Naitoko incidents, to pose a serious threat to police legitimacy or
even the public’s sense of trust in the police. Legitimacy of police is intertwined with the sense
of public trust in police. If the public lose trust, through police negligence in de Menezes or
Naitako type events, then this will lead to police legitimacy being undermined.
CONCLUSION
This section explored several major threats to police legitimacy. The discussion started with a
look at the commonly feared risk that a barrier would emerge between the police and public if
the police become routinely armed. This fear was considered to be largely unfounded in
250
Punch, Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force p.174.
Michael Fox, "Coroner Lashes out at Police," Auckland Now 23 August 2011.
252
Johannes Knutsson, Personal Interview. 2011
251
74
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Sweden and therefore it is not necessarily believed to be a change factor relevant for the New
Zealand environment. A similar conclusion was reached from the discussion of the effect of
routine arming on the police’s ability to police by consent. The use of firearms is already
available to the police when countering resistance and increased access is unlikely to result in
a change to the New Zealand environment. There was a more varied response in the potential
for the increased use of force, however an increase or decrease in the level of force used by
police depended on the officer’s perceptions of risk. Consequently, it cannot be concluded
that routine armament will result in the use of more force by New Zealand Police. However,
this final risk factor is likely to be the factor most likely to pose a serious threat to police
legitimacy should the New Zealand Police become routinely armed.
5.4 Threats to police safety
The New Zealand Police Association reported that assaults on police increased by 32% over
the decade ending 2009.253 They have also argued that routinely arming the police will lead to
an increase in police safety and a decrease in serious assaults on police officers. However,
there is evidence that suggests that routinely arming the police will coincide with an increased
risk to officer safety.254
DISCUSSION
5.4.1. Policing is no less safe than other work environments
The New Zealand Police Association suggested that routine arming of police would help
increase the occupational health and safety of New Zealand police officers.255 However Buttle
refutes this, suggesting that other professions, such as taxi-drivers, share similar occupational
health and safety issues, and as society wouldn’t respond by arming taxi-drivers, nor should
society arm the police. He also observes that workers from manufacturing, forestry,
construction and leisure sectors have a higher incidence of injury or death than police.256
More, however, warns of the danger of such comparisons because other professions do not
have direct contact with the most dangerous people.257 It is the role of the police officer to deal
with the person who assaults or causes harm to the taxi-driver. Bittner gives us the best
understanding of the police function: “something-that-ought-not-to-be-happening-and-about253
New Zealand Police Association, Towards a Safer New Zealand: Police and Law & Order Policies for the Future.
Knutsson, "Police Use of Firearms in the Nordic Countries.", Knutsson "Police Use of Firearms – a Comparison"
255
New Zealand Police Association, Towards a Safer New Zealand: Police and Law & Order Policies for the Future.
256
Buttle, "The Case against Arming the Police."
257
Harry W. More, Critical Issues in Law Enforcement, Criminal Justice Studies, 4th ed. (Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson Pub. Co.,
1985).
254
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which-someone-had-better-do-something-now!” 258 This description is not applicable to any
other profession, except perhaps other emergency services, and certainly raises doubt over the
utility of comparing the police work environment with taxi-drivers and forestry workers.
Furthermore, interviewees from England and Wales, Norway, and Sweden discuss the
impact of mental health deinstitutionalisation on police. Most often, when the mentally ill
deteriorate and are required to be brought into custody for compulsory care it is the police,
not mental health workers, who take them into custody. One of the most recent Norwegian
police officer homicides was as a result of such a procedure.259 The nature of police work is
unique. The unique nature requires police to be trained in defensive tactics, and the use of
weapons including firearms, in order for the police to adequately fulfil their role.260 While a
great deal of police interventions do not require the explicit use of force, the police deal with
the most dangerous and volatile members of society, therefore police require a unique set of
skills and equipment.
5.4.2. The illusion or extended capacity and safety
Squires suggests that giving a firearm to an officer gives the officer an illusion of safety; that
carrying a firearm will make the officer feel safer and better equipped to deal with more
dangerous situations.261 Knutsson can see this in the analysis of the Norwegian and Swedish
data; he concluded that an armed officer is more likely to rush into an armed or dangerous
situation than an unarmed officer.262 The Norwegian interviewees who referred to the Danish
effort to ‘stop and think’ had reached similar conclusions.
Knutsson showed us that the number of officers present during armed incidents in
Norway is more than double that in Sweden (see Table 3, p.21).263 The Skåne data showed that
a high proportion of shootings were in self-defence and had a large ‘panic’ element to them.
The comparison of the Norwegian and Swedish data suggests that Swedish police officers are
more inclined to engage, with fewer officers, in dangerous situations than the Norwegians,
and then find themselves shooting in self-defence.
258
Bittner, "Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of the Police," 161.
Interviewee 3, Personal Interview.
260
Alpert and Dunham, Understanding Police Use of Force : Officers, Suspects, and Reciprocity, Bayley, Patterns of Policing : A
Comparative International Analysis, Bittner, "Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of the Police.", Buttle,
"The Shift from Defensive to Offensive Policing: Cs Spray and the Use of Force.", Moll, Improving American Police Ethics
Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles, More, Critical Issues in Law Enforcement, Punch,
Shoot to Kill : Police Accountability, Firearms and Fatal Force, Rappert, "Constructions of Legitimate Force. The Case of Cs
Sprays.", Sousa, Ready and Ault, "The Impact of Tasers on Police Use-of-Force Decisions: Findings from a Randomized FieldTraining Experiment.", Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response, Interviewee 20, Personal
Interview.
261
Squires and Kennison, Shooting to Kill? : Policing, Firearms and Armed Response.
262
Knutsson, Personal Interview.
263
Knutsson "Police Use of Firearms – a Comparison"
259
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In the New Zealand policing environment, there is a similar delay to that of Norway,
where officers must equip themselves with firearms, either by returning to the nearest police
station, or waiting for a field supervisor to arrive with firearms. The routine armament of the
New Zealand police will remove this delay, and therefore they could succumb to the same
pressures as the Swedish police.
5.4.3. Police themselves will become victims of shooting by their own weapon, not all English
police officers are suited to using firearms and the training cost would create a financial burden
The concern that police will become victims of their own weapons was raised by Bott in the
literature.264 It was also raised by a number of interviewees in England, who were concerned
that not all English police are suited to using firearms and may become victims themselves, as
a result of their failure to retain their firearms.265 In support of this concern, Swedish and
Norwegian interviewees reflected upon an incident in Sweden where two patrol officers were
executed using their service weapons.
The statistics on the likelihood of this occurring suggests the risk is relatively low.
Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that 39 officers were killed by an offender
using their own pistol between 2000-2009 in the United States, one was killed using a rifle and
one with a baton.266 After adjustment for the New Zealand context, this would amount to a
fractional rate of 0.039 officers in New Zealand per year, or one officer in New Zealand dying
by their own weapon every 25 years.267 An earlier FBI study in 1992 looked at the behavioural
characteristics of police officers most likely to be killed in duty. These characteristics are listed
in the table below:268
264
Bott, The Police Arms Race.
See section 4.2
266
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2009 (2010).
267
This is formulated on the total number of US Law Enforcement Officers being 883,600 at 2008 (US Department of Labour
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos160.htm#projections_data) and 8840 sworn constabulary staff of the New Zealand Police, 2011.
268
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Killed in the Line of Duty: A Study of Selected Felonious Killings of Law Enforcement Officers
(Washington: National Institute of Justice, 1992), 32.
265
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Table 12: FBI Data of Police Officers Killed
BEHAVIOURAL DESCRIPTORS OF VICTIM POLICE OFFICERS
A friendly personality with all people
Well liked by the community
Uses less force than other officers would in similar circumstances
Hard working
Is service orientated and tends to perceive self as more public relations than law enforcement
Uses force only as the last resort – peers would claim that they would use force at earlier point in similar circumstances
Doesn’t follow procedures in regard to arrest, confrontations, traffic stops, doesn’t wait for backup
Feels the ability to read others and situations and would likely drop guard as a result
Tends to look for the good in others
Laid back and easy going.
There was a consistent view held by a number of interviewees in England that not all
English police are suited to using firearms. Unlike Norway and New Zealand, only a small
proportion of English police are trained and certified to use firearms. If the English forces
were to transition to routine armament then officers would have to be assessed for their
suitability for firearms use. Interviewees in the other jurisdictions did not hold this view. In
Sweden, although there was a clear demand for an increase in training, all officers are trained
to use firearms. Officers in New Zealand and Norway are similarly trained to use firearms.
Some English interviewees also expressed concern about the cost of arming, initial training
and ongoing training of officers, and the financial burden that would be placed on police
budgets.
All officers in New Zealand currently receive basic firearms training as a police recruit
and six-monthly recertification training. The likelihood that some New Zealand officers
would be unsuitable to deploy firearms is negligible – unsuitable recruits would be identified
during initial training. In terms of officers becoming a victim of their own weapon, and the
issues of weapon retention, the risk is real but negligible in New Zealand.
5.4.4. An increased chance of police officer suicide
It was suggested by one English and one Norwegian interviewee that routine arming would
result in an increase of police suicide through the increased availability of firearms. Others did
not raise this, but there are several published articles on the matter comparing police officer
suicide rates with other occupations.269 A 1999 study of federal and state police officers in
269
Peter M. Marzuk, Matthew Nock, K, Andrew Leon, C, Laura Pertera and Kenneth Tardiff, "Suicide among New York City
Police Officers, 1977-1996," American Journal of Psychiatry 159.12 (2002), John M. Violanti, John E. Vena and James R. Marshall,
"Suicides, Homicides, and Accidental Death: A Comparative Risk Assessment of Police Officers and Municipal Workers,"
American Journal of Industrial Medicine 30.1 (1996), J. M. Violanti, J. E. Vena, J. R. Marshall and S. Petralia, "A Comparative
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Germany found that police officers had a high rate of suicide compared to other occupations,
and found that the most common method was by firearm, although it did not specify if the
firearm was police issue or private.270 It is difficult to draw any conclusions from the available
data. But, if routine arming is linked to an increase in police suicide rates on the basis that
officers had a greater access to firearms, then risks can be mitigated. For instance, Swedish
police forces do not carry their weapons when they are off-duty; they are stored securely at
police stations. The call to routinely arm the New Zealand police is silent on whether firearms
would be personally issued and whether officers should be armed while they are off duty.
5.4.5 Arming police with a pistol will not make police safer as most criminals who use firearms
will use a rifle or shotgun
Bott suggested that routinely arming the police would result in a corresponding increase in
criminal armament and that arming with pistols is an inadequate match for a rifle or
shotgun.271 There was no corroboration in the data to support this view. Swedish interviewees
commented that the degree of weapons used by the public had changed over the past 30 years.
While knives were commonplace 30 years ago, firearms are predominant now. Similarly,
Swedish interviewees commented that the level of violence within Sweden has not changed,
but this violence was occurring in more public contexts. There is, however, no discernable
link to this being an increase as a result of routine arming of police. Bott’s logic is correct in
that a pistol is not a match for more powerful firearms such as rifles or shotguns. However, it
is unlikely that police officers would choose to deploy with just a pistol against overwhelming
opposition.272 Also, police firearms are not only being used in situations with an offender
armed with a firearm. The Skåne data (Table 8, p.65) shows that in 27% of incidents, police
are responding with firearms against offenders who are armed with sharp and blunt
instruments. The lack of data on this topic makes it difficult to assess the extent to which it
may be a risk factor in terms of the New Zealand context.
CONCLUSION
The most serious issue raised in this section, the illusion of safety, requires consideration if
New Zealand police officers were to become routinely armed. As Knutsson suggests, routinely
arming police may lead to a reduction in police safety if it makes officers more inclined to
engage in dangerous situations. This calls into question the reasons for routinely arming the
Evaluation of Police Suicide Rate Validity," Suicide Life Threat Behav 26.1 (1996), A. Schmidtke, S. Fricke and D. Lester, "Suicide
among German Federal and State Police Officers," Psychological Reports 84.1 (1999).
270
Schmidtke, Fricke and Lester, "Suicide among German Federal and State Police Officers."
271
Bott, The Police Arms Race.
272
Interviewee 22, Personal Interview, Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
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police, not for the reasons suggested by Buttle or Bott, but because the solid data collected
suggests that police may be less safe. Routinely armed police also must be encouraged to
understand the utility of the pistol and that it has the potential to mask perceptions of threat.
Other risks to police safety are considered to be largely unfounded. The literature does not
support Buttle’s view that policing is no less safe than other work environments. While there
is a chance that officers can become victim of their own weapon, reported statistics suggests
that the chances of this occurring in New Zealand are slim.
5.5 Threats to public safety
The accidental shooting of New Zealander Halatau Naitoko highlights the inherent danger to
the public when police use lethal force. Similarly, the shooting of de Menezes in England,
highlights the fragility of the public’s trust in the police. These issues of accidental and
unlawful shootings have been addressed in the previous section. However, this section looks
at other potential threats to public safety associated with a routinely armed police force.
DISCUSSION
5.5.1. Increased use of firearms on the mentally ill and ‘suicide-by-cop’
The trend to deinstitutionalise mentally ill persons can be seen in many western societies, and
its impact on police, was evident in the three case studies when interviewees described
changes in the policing environment. The Office of Police Integrity (OPI) of the Australian
state of Victoria found that 53% of fatal police shootings during the period of 1990-2004
involved individuals suffering from a mental illness or disorder.273 The OPI also observed that
this was due to a police culture of reliance on firearms most likely because of a lack of training
to deal with and controlling situations involving the mentally ill.274 New Zealand shares a
similar history and pathway of deinstitutionalisation275 and the New Zealand Police have
already experienced several incidents including the mentally ill that resulted in fatalities, so
parallels can be drawn from the Australian, English, Norwegian, and Swedish experiences.
A number of previous New Zealand examples have shown how fatalities can lead to
allegations of excessive use of force, such as the shooting incident in 2000 at Waitara involving
Steven Wallace.276 In this case, the parents of Wallace brought a private murder case against
273
G. E. Brouwer, Review of Fatal Shootings by Victoria Police (Melbourne: Office of Police Integrity, 2005).
Ibid.
275
Alun E. Joseph and Robin A. Kearns, "Deinstitutionalization Meets Restructuring: The Closure of a Psychiatric Hospital in
New Zealand," Health & Place 2.3 (1996).
276
Independent Police Conduct Authority, Report on the Shooting of Steven Wallace (Wellington: Independent Police Conduct
Authority, 2009).
274
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the officer who shot their son. Likewise, criticism was levelled at police after the shooting of
Stephen Bellingham in 2007.277 Neither Wallace nor Bellingham was armed with a firearm –
Wallace was armed with a baseball bat and Bellingham armed with a hammer – but both cases
are indicative of the difficulty police face when engaging with armed, volatile and violent
offenders.
Although neither the Wallace nor Bellingham cases were believed to be a case of
‘suicide by cop’ (SbC), the IPCA report into the 2009 shooting of Shayne Sime278 considers the
part that suicide may have played leading up to Sime’s death. SbC is the phenomenon where
“incidents in which individuals, bent on self-destruction, engage in life-threatening and
criminal behaviour in order to force the police to kill them.”279 Lord and Sloop suggest that
SbC differs from self-inflicted suicides in that SbC incidents usually commence with the
commission of an armed criminal act and culminate in the failure to surrender a weapon to
police.280 In the current New Zealand context, the initial armed criminal act would trigger an
armed response from police including hostage negotiation. So, unless the initial act was
directed at police, it is unlikely that the armed status of the police could be attributed to an
increase in SbC. This topic was not identified as a priority risk factor during English,
Norwegian or Swedish interviews but this maybe due to the low reported incidence.
The experiences of the Victorian police indicate potential risk factors facing the New
Zealand police. Both countries have experienced deinstitutionalisation which has resulted in
an increase in the mentally ill living in the community. The risk of an increase of interaction
with police was supported by the observations of all interviewees. The manner in which the
police react in these situations is a result of the training provided to officers and therefore is a
question of police policy. New Zealand officers currently interact with deinstitutionalised
mentally ill and have statutory obligations to assist medical officers under the Mental Health
(Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992.281 Further training would be needed to
ensure that appropriate tactical responses are used should the New Zealand Police become
routinely armed.
5.5.2. An increase in police shootings
It has been suggested that routine armament would result in an increase in police shootings.
Norwegian and English interviewees supported this view. Knutsson has observed that Swedish
277
Independent Police Conduct Authority, Report on the Shooting of Stephen Jon Bellingham (Wellington: Independent Police
Conduct Authority, 2009).
278
Independent Police Conduct Authority, Public Report into Police Shooting of Shayne Richard Sime (Wellington: Independent
Police Conduct Authority, 2010).
279
V.J Gerbeth, "Suicide by Cop," Law and Order (1993)., cited by Vivian B. Lord and Michael W. Sloop, "Suicide by Cop: Police
Shooting as a Method of Self-Harming," Journal of Criminal Justice 38.5 (2010).
280
Lord and Sloop, "Suicide by Cop: Police Shooting as a Method of Self-Harming."
281
Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act, No 46 (1992)
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officers fire their firearms five times more often than Norwegians.282 The Skåne data shows
that Swedish officers have a high proportion of ‘panic-shooting’ for self defence. Fears of
American ‘nightmare’ scenarios are often raised, where police routinely have their firearm out
and pointed at the person they are dealing with.283 These are valid concerns; one study of
shootings by the Chicago police found that of 523 civilians shot by police over a four-year
period in the 1970s, 14% were unintentional.284
However, there was a common feeling among all interviewees, albeit a pragmatic one,
that accidents will happen; police officers make mistakes. One interviewee helps give
perspective to the debate, drawing a parallel between arming police and the risks associated
with having medical vaccinations. He notes that patients, or patient’s caregivers, routinely
authorise the injection of a potentially hazardous substances on the basis that the risk is far
outweighed by the benefit. So, will the public be willing to risk a similar risk in arming its
police?285 Ultimately, though, the risk relies on the balance of being unarmed with that of the
need for public safety. The machete example shown in the English case study illustrates this.
In that instance, the police were fortunate that the offender did not decamp; as the initial
responding police were unable to contain him they would have been unable to stop him from
causing further harm. If he did, before the police with riot shields arrived, criticism would
have been levelled against the police for failing to ensure public safety. When discussing
public safety amongst the interviewees, one Swede commented that the current literature and
research is problematic because it doesn’t take into account of the fact that people would be
injured or killed if the police weren’t armed. This is a valid point. Ultimately, however, if the
police use of firearms undermines public safety then it will call into question the degree of
public trust in the police and the sense of police legitimacy.
5.5.3. A decrease in sense of public safety in society
The Norwegian interviewees commented that the transition to a routinely armed police force
would lead to a decreased sense of public safety. Because the image of firearms on police is not
routine, as it is in Sweden, the sight of weapons on police indicates danger: the police must be
armed because there is something dangerous occurring. This is similar to one of the findings
in relation to police legitimacy; the Danish were less likely to feel safe as a result in the
increase of police presence. Waddington, however, suggests that the ‘weapons effect’ – the
visual prominence of firearms – is somewhat diminished now due to the amount of
282
Knutsson, Personal Interview.
Locke, Policing Bill - Third Reading, Parliametrary Debate.
284
More, Critical Issues in Law Enforcement p.109.
285
Interviewee 20, Personal Interview.
283
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equipment currently being worn by police officers of today. Even some of the Swedish police
officers interviewed believed that it would be likely that the public would not notice if police
stopped wearing pistols. Nonetheless, the Norwegian interviewees consistently agreed that
any decrease in the public’s sense of safety, due to seeing their police armed, would eventually
diminish. Society would eventually get used to it. A similar response could be likely in New
Zealand but it would depend on the visibility of firearms worn by police. It would also depend
on the cultural variance in the link between police visibility and sense of safety (as discussed
by Kääriäinen in section 3.2).
CONCLUSION
Routinely arming the police does pose genuine risks to public safety. The potential risk for
injuries and deaths to the mentally ill appears to be the most likely risk, given the experiences
in Victoria. Training, and deployment of appropriate tactical responses, can mitigate the
extent of this risk. It is also likely that routine arming will result in an increase of shootings,
with a real risk of unintentional harm or accidental shootings to the public. This has the
potential to undermine the police-public relationship.
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Chapter 6 – Conclusions
6.1 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to summarise the research findings and address issues that have
emerged from the research analysis. Several recommendations are also made, particularly in
relation to the role of policy in mitigating the effect of change should the New Zealand Police
become routinely armed.
6.2 Research objectives, Summary of findings and Conclusions
New Zealand is one of four OECD countries that has a routinely unarmed police force.
Between 2008 and 2010, nine police officers were shot in New Zealand, two fatally. The New
Zealand Police Association has now called for the police to be routinely armed in order to
preserve police health and safety. What potential consequences would result if the New
Zealand Police did become routinely armed? There are a number of commonly expressed
fears at the prospect of routine arming, but a lack of evidence as to whether these fears are
justified. This research project aims to contribute to the debate by exploring the role of
firearms and the impact they have on the relationship between the police and the public.
Policing is strategically important to the maintenance of modern society. It is one of
the few branches of government that is empowered to use force in order to fulfil its mandate.
In democratic societies the public effectively delegates their use of force to the state to allow
the state to maintain social order. Yet, while police have the potential to use force, they don’t
always exercise their right to use it. Force is used with discretion. The level of force used by
police must be seen by the public to be appropriate and proportionate to the level of threat if
police are to maintain public trust and therefore legitimacy. Should the police become
routinely armed, would the level of force (or perceived level of force) appear disproportionate
to the threat presented?
Police legitimacy requires the majority of society to accept the lawful authority and
right of the police to do ‘what they do’. The police do what they do by ‘public consent’. In New
Zealand, police take this one step further and actively engage the public in taking
responsibility for reducing crime. Would this relationship be affected by routine arming?
Could police legitimacy, the public trust and belief in the current policing system be
negatively affected? The police systems in England and Wales, Norway, and Sweden, have
potential to contribute to the debate and to enhance understanding of the possible impact
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routine arming may have in New Zealand. Like the New Zealand Police, police forces in these
jurisdictions are highly civilianised, serve robust democracies, and police ‘by consent’.
The first stage of analysis focused on factors that had the potential to destabilise police
legitimacy. The common fear that a barrier would emerge between the police and public if the
police become routinely armed is not consistent with the findings of the research. Similarly, it
was found that routine armament is unlikely to impact significantly on the police’s ability to
police by consent. There was a more varied response in the potential for routine armament to
result in an increased use of force and this would depend on the officer’s perceptions of risk.
The strongest risk to the police-public relationship could emerge through unlawful or
accidental deaths. Another notable finding was the realisation that the Norwegian public
observed different demeanours of police officers when they were armed as a result of an
incident. It is believed that they attributed this to the fact that the police were wearing
firearms, not because of the nature of the incident the police were dealing with. It is likely that
this would be a similar case in New Zealand.
The effect of routine armament on police officer safety was also examined. The key
finding was that routinely arming police might lead to a reduction in police safety as officers
may be more inclined to engage in dangerous situations. Evidence suggests this risk can be
mitigated by training and policy. The risk that police would become victim of their own
weapons was real but statistically low in the New Zealand context. Claims that policing was no
less safe than other work environments were also found to be unsubstantiated.
Threats to public safety were also evaluated. The potential risk for injuries and deaths
to the mentally ill appears to be most likely, yet this can be mitigated by training, and
deployment of appropriate tactical responses. It is also likely that routine arming will result in
an increase of shootings.
6.3 Recommendations
It has been suggested that police policies and the level of threat perception held by police
affect the use of firearms by police. Routinely armed police should understand the utility and
limitations of the firearm, and that being routinely armed has potential to mask perceptions of
threat. Should the New Zealand Police become routinely armed, additional training would be
required to educate officers on the psychological impacts of this. Similarly, police training
must attempt to mitigate the occurrence of panic shooting and promote best practice when
responding to incidents involving the mentally ill.
This research project has been designed not to deliberate on the merits or need of
routinely arming the New Zealand Police. Instead, it is hoped that the case studies, analysis
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and conclusions will help inform the decision makers of the potential consequences of such a
decision. The research findings, and subsequent analysis, need to be taken with caution. They
are largely based upon the opinions of criminologists and police practitioners as well as a
selection of published theory. Further research and analysis is recommended, particularly to
investigate the views of the public.
6.4 Reflection
The Anglo-Saxon tradition of policing by consent requires positive and functional
relationships with the majority of the public being policed. This means that the police-public
relationship is vitally important. While some commentators celebrate the tradition and
character of New Zealand policing, and Squires and Kennison observe a similar tradition in
England, the mythical benign-bobby and the golden age of policing are now remnants of
history. The shooting of nine police officers, two resulting in death, attests to this.
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Appendices
A1. Interview Questions
The following is a reproduction of the sample questions provided to the interviewees.
The Strategic Impact of the routine arming of the New Zealand Police
The following questions are grouped into two categories. All participants will be invited to answer the
first set; these are designed to facilitate a discussion about the broader issues of the topic. The second
set will be proposed to interviewees who have knowledge or opinion about particular jurisdictions. It is
envisaged that some participants will be qualified to speak about more than one jurisdiction.
Questions for all interviewees
Thinking about your territory, state or country:
•
How would you describe the relationship between your police and public?
•
How would you describe the public’s perception of corruption?
•
What changes have you observed of your police force’s use of force over the past decade?
Your personal views (not attributed to your national police force):
•
Do you agree with the armed status of your police force?
•
Would you like to see it changed?
•
Is your sense of personal safety affected by the armed status of your police?
Thinking about changes in the police “customer base” over the past 25 years:
•
Has the criminal fraternity become more violent?
•
Have the police before more violent?
Thinking about Police use of force:
•
Does routinely arming the police make officers safer and less prone to physical attack?
Jurisdictional specific questions
Specific questions about Norway:
•
What do you think that about the change in arming policy of the Norwegian Police? Has this
increased or decreased police officer safety?
•
How have the Norwegian public responded to the police’s greater access to firearms?
•
Why do you think that the Norwegian police haven’t become routinely armed?
•
Has the arming policy made the Norwegian Police less approachable?
Specific questions about Sweden:
The Strategic Impact of routine arming the New Zealand Police | Dissertation
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94
•
Do you think that Sweden routinely armed their police for the right reasons?
•
Has routine arming increased or decreased police officer safety in Sweden?
•
Has there been an increase in police shootings since Sweden routinely armed the police?
•
Why did Norway not follow Sweden when they routinely armed the police?
Thinking about England & Wales:
•
Is the British arming model (routinely unarmed with specialist squads) the best?
•
How would the British public perceive a routinely armed police force?
•
How similar are Scandinavian and British police forces? Do they share similar approaches or
policy to policing?
Thinking about New Zealand:
•
Do you agree with the view that routine arming the NZ Police will make them less
approachable and if so, then why?
•
Do you think that routine arming the NZ Police will increase safety?
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A2. Pictures for reference
Swedish Police Officers armed with sidearms
Figure 11: Swedish Police
Officers armed with pistol286
MP5 sub-machine gun
Figure 12: MP5 sub-machine gun worn by an
English Police officer outside Parliament, London287
286
287
Stockholm County Police, Stockholm County Police (Stockholm: Stockholm County Police, 2006).
Photograph Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Police.gun.1.london.arp.jpg
95
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