Napier siege cost more than $250,000

The two-day siege by Napier gunman Jan Molenaar, who shot dead police officer Len Snee and wounded three other people, cost more than $250,000.

However, eastern district area commander Superintendent Sam Hoyle said money was not the biggest concern when a police officer was down and the public was in danger.

"You do things as efficiently as you can on the ground during the day but you're not doing the mental arithmetic. You've just got to get the job done."

Figures issued by police to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show the siege cost $254,283, not counting the salaries of up to 100 officers involved.

Police operational expenses made up about $209,000 and Environmental Science and Research expenses after the siege totalled more than $45,000.

A big chunk of the cost was for police helicopters and other helicopters used to bring in the heavily armed Special Tactics Group from Auckland and Wellington, and bomb disposal experts. They cost an average of $2000 an hour to run.

Included in the cost was $5715 for the army's light armoured vehicles sent to the scene, one of which was used to recover Mr Snee's body from outside Molenaar's Chaucer Rd house.

Molenaar fired volleys at police and riddled houses with bullets up to 400 metres away before taking his own life.

"As far as sieges go it was long. We have AOS jobs every day of the week up and down the country. Most of them are over in a few hours," Mr Hoyle said.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the salary costs would have added tens of thousands more to the bill.

"Being cynical, it was a lot cheaper than it could have been. The offender is dead so it didn't go through the courts."

- NZPA