Police Respond to Criticism of Terror Raids

People are asked to check the Police response to public criticism of the terror raids at http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/3450.html

3 October 2007

  • A 33-seater Kohanga Reo bus (without any school bus signs) ... was stopped and searched... The bus contained three people - the driver, a woman monitor and a 14 year old female secondary school student .

  • Armed officers approached the driver and advised him that the vehicle would be searched. One officer boarded the bus and asked the ... occupants to disembark. The ... bus was subjected to a search ... Other staff photographed the occupants whilst another searched the exterior compartments before the driver and two passengers were cleared to continue the journey.

There has been some unfortunate public comment around the matter of school buses ...

Police were conducting an operation which involved the arrest of people known to have and use firearms and other weapons.

All measures taken by Police were designed to mitigate the serious risk that existed.

Police on the day were acting in good faith ...

It was inevitable in an operation of this size and nature in a small rural community that people unconnected to the operation were going to be inconvenienced.

The checkpoint was in place for the minimum period necessary, and consideration was given to the effect of our operation on children in that the school bus which clearly had children on board was facilitated through the checkpoint without a search.

"I can assure those who had, as a precautionary measure, their photographs taken with the vehicles they travelled in that those images have been deleted".

"I wish to reiterate ... the whole police operation will be fully debriefed and we will reflect on the various submissions made to us."

"Police's first priority when undertaking operations involving alleged firearms offences is to ensure no-one gets hurt. We achieved that objective last week," said Mr White.