Those who are quick to criticise the police when fatal shootings occur should be no less quick to commend them when an armed confrontation does not end with an alleged offender being shot. Praise is particularly highly deserved when as many as four police officers have been shot and are being treated in hospital as the tense stand-off continued.
The patience and professionalism of our police in the incident in the eastern Bay of Plenty on Wednesday is a credit to all of the armed offenders squad, and particularly, of course, to the Taupo area commander, Inspector Warwick Morehu, who talked to the alleged gunman and helped defuse the crisis without further harm.
Many questions remain, and might not be answered until criminal proceedings against 27-year-old Rhys Warren come to court. The public is reasonably wondering how as many as four members of an armed offenders squad could be in a line of fire. The incident arose after shots were allegedly fired at a spotter plane during a cannabis recovery operation. But there is no place for conjecture about what happened next when the case is before the courts.
The same applies to criticism of the police tactics by some of the accused's family as the stand-off continued. Women who wanted to go into the house and talk to him made their annoyance voluble on television that night. Many hearing and reading their comments have criticised their apparent indifference to the fact that four policemen had just been shot. But they, too, deserve a good measure of understanding for the distress they were in.
It surely can be said, though, that police did the right thing in not letting them through the cordon. Even Inspector Morehu would have used a phone.
