"The ultimate danger obviously has been seen seven weeks ago in what happened to Constable Hunt and his partner out in Waitemata."
The three incidents in the past week alone showed a bit of a brazen attitude from armed criminals, who were willing to confront police with firearms, he said.
"In all of these cases the officers themselves did not have a firearm on them when they were confronted."
Back in 2010 the Police Association's general conference called for the general arming of police, he said.
At the end of last year more than half of the association's members were supportive of general arming.
Among frontline general duties constables 72 per cent were supportive, he said.
And within road policing that figure was 74 per cent.
"They are trying to make the road safer," he said.
However, the routine traffic stop was potentially one of the most dangerous things within normal policing because "we don't know what we don't know" when approaching, he said.
Every person should be able to go home from work, he said.
These were scary, pretty traumatic incidents for the officers concerned, he said.
The effect was also felt by their families, these were the things partners and children lost sleep over, he said.
Last night, police had signalled for a vehicle to stop on Weymouth Rd in Manurewa.
