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Use of taser on tractor thief ‘unreasonable and excessive’ says police authority

 

BY JULIA WADE

20 MF-Tractor2-170A police officers tasering of a young driver who sparked a low speed pursuit on a stolen Kaiwaka farm vehicle last year, has been deemed unwarranted. 


The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) have found that the use of the weapon was ‘an unreasonable and excessive use of force’ with authority chair, Judge Colin Doherty, saying ‘the officer’s breaches in policy could have resulted in unnecessary injury to the driver’.  

The incident unfolded in the early hours of April 2018, when the intoxicated 15-year old stole the tractor from a shed at the Kaiwaka Sports Association complex and proceeded to drive the 20km to Wellsford at a maximum speed of 18kph. 

Owners of the farm vehicle, Mark and Pam Ottaway, raised the alarm when they saw the tractor ambling past their home. The first police officer to respond located the driver when he was 13km away from the sports grounds on SH1 and eventually two police cars followed in ‘hot’ pursuit for another 6km. The pursuit lasted 12 minutes. 

Although there is a funny side to the story, the youth posed a significant safety risk to himself and other motorists with dangerous manoeuvres including several U-turns on the highway and driving on the opposite side of the road. 

As the convoy reached Wellsford, a third officer attempted to stop the driver by laying road spikes which the youth managed to evade by driving onto the footpath. The driver then stopped the tractor, left the engine idling, and was tasered and arrested after he dismounted the tractor. However, according to the investigation, it is unclear if the driver fell or jumped from the vehicle when the taser was deployed. 

Although the officer who fired the weapon claimed he did so ‘because of the youth’s driving and the risk he posed to everybody if he continued’, IPCA believed the ‘driver did not pose an immediate threat once the tractor had stopped and there were more appropriate actions the officer could have taken’. 

Waitemata District Commander, Superintendent Naila Hassan, says while police accept the findings of the IPCA’s report it is also ‘important to acknowledge that this was a dynamic, unpredictable situation’.  

“The nature of policing is unpredictable and our officers are frequently faced with situations where they are required to make split-second decisions in rapidly-changing, and often dangerous, environments. The officer involved in this incident… involving an intoxicated male driving dangerously on the highway and posing a safety risk to the public, himself and to our police officers… was acting in good faith and with community safety at the forefront of his intentions as he attempted to resolve the situation with urgency,” she says. 

“We have taken on board the IPCA’s findings and accept there were other tactical options available to the officer at the time. We will be communicating the lessons learnt from this incident to our people and the officer involved.”

Pam and Mark Ottaway after the safe return of their tractor in 2018 say at first they ‘were having a chuckle with the 111 operators’ but admit the chase got ‘a bit scary’ when the driver began to swerve onto the wrong side of the road. PHOTO/FILE

 
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