Illegal guns blamed for increase in AOS callouts

File photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Greater access to illegal guns and an increasingly violent society has seen armed offenders squad (AOS) callouts double in the past 10 years, police say.

In the 2009-10 financial year there were 1040 AOS callouts in New Zealand compared with 470 in 2000-2001, figures released to The Press under the Official Information Act show.

The figures also showed that in the 2009-10 year there were 69 incidents where an offender opened fire and that since 2005 officers had fired shots at offenders on four occasions, which had resulted in three fatal shootings.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the figures reflected a rise in the number of illegal firearms and said they showed police should be fully armed.

Government moves to give frontline police greater access to firearms were a positive step but it would probably take a mass killing where police were forced to "stand by and watch" for police to become fully armed, Mr O'Connor said.

Inspector Bryan Buck, AOS commander for Canterbury, said people resorted to weapons very easily.

A lot of the increase in callouts came from pre-planned work such as search warrants, Mr Buck said.

- NZPA