Police need tasers not guns, says Key after officer's funeral

A fast roll-out of Taser stun guns for police is expected in the upcoming budget, but there are no plans to fully arm the force, Prime Minister John Key said after slain policeman Len Snee's funeral in Napier today.

Mr Key attended the funeral of Mr Snee who was gunned down by Jan Molenaar during a routine cannabis operation at Molenaar's Chaucer Road home on Napier Hill last Thursday.

The large crowd who gathered at the funeral showed the support police had from the community, he said.

"We hold our police in high regard. Every day they potentially put their lives on the line..."

He said it was a tragedy that three police officers had been killed on duty within 12 months.

"It's the first since I've been prime minister and I hope it's the last."

Mr Key said he believed arming police with Tasers rather than guns was the right approach in avoiding further deaths.

"It's an important point that we give police the full protection that we can, but on the other hand we don't aggravate the situation and potentially make things worse.

"It's not a time for rash moves by politicians. In my view fully arming the police is a negative step that is likely to put them potentially at greater risk and likely to put up a greater barrier between the police force and the New Zealand public.

"So certainly I think Tasers will be a welcome addition to the armoury for police officers."

Police Commissioner Howard Broad supported the Government's position on not arming the police.

"While everyone wants to talk about it now, the emotion is too raw to really start making determined final judgments on these sorts of things.

"My base position though is that we have arms available to our officers now and I guess it's been said that some people would be a little surprised at how proximate the arms are.

"But that's because there are risks and officers needed to have ready access to them to be able to perform the sorts of operations they do."

Having visibly armed police did not necessarily add to the overall safety of police, Mr Broad said.

"The public will end up by seeing a different sort of police and we may therefore have to adjust what we think about policing in this country.

"You're wandering around with a firearm on your hip, it's a different sort of person."

- NZPA