Dr Ross Hendy1
1Monash University, Melborne, Australia
Historically, the rate of officer involved shootings in New Zealand has been lower than the rate of officer involved shootings in Australia. This has, in part, been understood as a function of New Zealand Police retaining a non-routinely armed status while Australian police agencies have progressively become routinely armed with firearms. This assumption is tested through a comparison of officer involved shootings in Australia, England and Wales, and New Zealand over a 50-year period (1971-2020). However, the present research identifies that in the past decade, the rate of officer involved shootings in New Zealand has surpassed that of Australia. Comparing how operational police firearms policies in Australia, England and Wales, and New Zealand coalesce with changes in the rate of shootings, this paper provides an opportunity to consider the efficacy of the binary routinely armed / non-routinely armed paradigm.
Biography:
Ross Hendy is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences, Monash University. As a former sergeant with New Zealand Police, he now works with researchers to enhance their understanding of the police environment, the limitations of police administrative data, and providing advice about real-world issues that criminal justice practitioners and policy-makers face in the criminological and criminal justice environment.