Attacks on traffic officers

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 12

Attacks on traffic officers

Life is getting more unpleasant for traffic officers on patrol. Not unreasonably, officers in areas where they are most likely to be physically attacked are asking for better ways to protect themselves. New Zealand remains one of the few countries in the world where the enforcement of traffic laws is generally carried out by a separate force. Increasingly, traffic officers have to call on the ordinary police for assistance as offenders resist arrest or use violence in an attempt to escape. Even so, traffic officers must often face angry and hostile people in situations where immediate help from colleagues or the police is not available. Some years ago this led to traffic officers being assigned to patrol in pairs at night. This gave better protection, but at the price of halving the number of patrols on the road, using the same number of officers. More recently, in 1983, traffic officers were authorised to carry handcuffs as an aid to restraining violent offenders. The number of assaults has been increasing again. More than 200 traffic officers, out of a force of about 1000, are attacked each year. In recent times, officers have been bitten, bashed, kicked, threatened with firearms, and assaulted with knives, axes, and other weapons. Traffic officers in parts of Auckland where assaults are most frequent are asking that they be issued with batons or some other form of self-defence. In some areas they also want to have two-person patrols introduced by day as well as night. If the Auckland officers get their way, similar arrangements should be introduced throughout the country. All traffic officers, whatever their district,

run a risk now of assault by day and night, Deploring the increasing violence in the community does not help front-line traffic officers. They deserve whatever equipment and arrangements seem necessary for them to carry out their work. As it is, they must face many of the hazards of the police, without the same resources. Traffic officers are not asking for an increase in their powers, which remain limited. They have authority to stop and question drivers, and power of arrest when they suspect the influence of drink or drugs in an incident. Otherwise, their powers are no greater than those of an ordinary citizen. In the longer term it may be that New Zealand will have to review the system of maintaining a separate traffic police force. A better service, with greater security for traffic patrols, might be achieved by a traffic section within the organisation of the regular police. Such a change would be unfortunate. The police generally do not want to be concerned with minor breaches of traffic regulations. Traffic law enforcement is often specialised work that requires different skills and attitudes from those normally used by the police. But traffic officers cannot be asked to face intolerable hazards with inadequate means of protection. Increasingly, attempts to apprehend traffic offenders lead to criminal assaults. The line between the two kinds of law enforcement has become blurred. To maintain a separate traffic force may no longer meet the realities of the situations that those policing traffic laws are required to deal with.