New tasers are understood to be rolling out to frontline cops, but why does this mean they could be forced to wear body-cameras. Video / NZ Herald
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Frontline police could soon wear body cameras as the updating of their taser fleet triggers discussions at the top.
Police have confirmed the decision to proceed with updating the current taser fleet from late 2023, but the Herald understands the model being considered doesn’t have a built-in camera - unlike the current ones being used.
It would mean the “moral agreement” between the police, the Government and the public is lost.
“Their agreement currently is that they will have to have cameras on their tasers, so they have to look to a solution,” Police Association president Chris Cahill told Focus.
As outlined on Axon’s website, the new model has a 10-probe capacity and a maximum range of 45 feet (13.7m). With no built-in camera, they instead connect automatically to Axon body-worn cameras as well as in-car cameras.
In a statement to Focus, police refused to confirm these details, stating only that “there was still significant work to be done on what this would look like”.
On the use of body-worn cameras, they said it “remained an issue they were considering as part of wider ongoing work”.
Police have only ever gone as far as a draft review in 2019 when a proposed trial of body-worn cameras was supposed to go ahead in Lower Hutt. But the trial was quietly shelved for reasons unknown.
Axon's Taser 10. Photo / Axon
This came despite significant interest from Police Association members as well as calls from the public for their introduction.
“The issues with body cameras is obviously something that’s that’s been around for a long time,” Cahill said.
“There’s been many calls from a variety of groups and we’re certainly not opposed to that. We think, overall, people film everything anyway and so body cameras allow the full story to be told rather than snippets that suit a particular angle that someone might want to take.”
Should body-worn cameras be introduced, there would be significant hurdles.
Cost-wise, each camera is more than $1000, not to mention the expense of storing the data. Then there’s the issue of privacy and who would be allowed access to the footage.
Security guards in Newmarket have showcased how it could work, as they were recently kitted out with the technology.
It came alongside a $500,000 investment into security measures for the area.
“[The cameras] actually act as a de-escalation point,” Mark Knoff-Thomas, of the Newmarket Business Association, said. “So once somebody sees that the camera says ‘you’re being recorded audio and visual’ they might calm down and go ‘okay, cool, maybe I won’t go crazy after all.
“So if a situation happens, they’re able to tap a button, activate the camera to record what is happening then and there.”
Before any taser replacement, there would be public consultation, police said.
