IR-01-22-68
18 February 2022
Joshua Rogers
[FYI request #18044 email]
Dear Joshua
I am writing in response to your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request dated 23
December 2021. You wrote:
I am writing to request an Excel file relating to all firearms related jobs
(Where firearms have been used either by, or against police) from the
period of 1/05/2018 to 23/12/2021. Specifically I request all Hamilton City
jobs.
I would like the file to contain the following columns:
Date, Time, CARD/Event number, Location (if possible), Weapon
Discharged (Yes/No and by who) and Result Code.
Two police databases have been used to answer your request.
First, the Tactical Options Reporting Database (TOR):
The TOR database records police use of tactical equipment. For your request, I have
filtered all TOR events that involved police using a firearm in the Hamilton City area.
“Use” of a firearm includes presenting the firearm or discharging the firearm.
TOR data from 2018 to 2020 that had completed the review process (as of the date the
data was extracted for that year’s TOR Report) was used. Data for 2021 is comprised of
TORs which have completed the review process as at 18 January 2022 and is subject to
change.
A TOR “event” is the reportable use of one or more tactical options by one officer, against
one individual. Multiple TOR events can occur at one incident.
The Armed Offenders Squads (AOS) and Special Tactics Group (STG) are exempted
from reporting shows (but not discharges) of TASER and firearms.
Result code information is not collected in the TOR database; instead Police has
provided you with subject resolution details from the TOR database.
See the attached Excel sheet, “Table 1. TOR events involving a presentation or
discharge of a firearm by police in the Hamilton City Area between 1 May 2018 and 23
December 2021.”
Police National Headquarters 180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Telephone: 04 474 9499. Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz
The second is the Gun Safe database which was used for the data pertaining to firearms
use at police.
Gun Safe was introduced nationally on 1 March 2019 to record police encounters with
firearms (data prior to this date is not available). Staff are asked to enter all events where
firearms are believed to be involved, into Gun Safe, regardless of whether, or how, these
firearms were used during the event. This includes, but is not limited to, events where
firearms are seized or located, events where a person involved has a history of using
firearms, and events involving the presentation or discharge of firearms at members of
public or police.
Gun Safe discharge events are those involving at least one firearm discharge at police.
This includes events involving discharges at, or in the general direction of, police officers,
police dogs, police vehicles, and police premises.
Gun Safe presentation events are those involving at least one firearm presentation at
police. This includes events involving a firearm being pointed directly at police officers,
police dogs, police vehicles, and police premises. These events did not also result in a
discharge of a firearm at police.
The Gun Safe information provided is from a live operational database. There has been
significant effort to verify the accuracy of the data, but some inaccuracies may still exist.
See the attached Excel sheet, “Table 2. Gun Safe events involving a presentation or
discharge of a firearm at police in the Hamilton City Area between 1 March 2019 and 23
December 2021.”
You have a right under section 28(3) of the OIA to ask the Ombudsman to seek an
investigation and review of my decision.
Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police
proactively release some information and documents that may be of interest to the public.
Therefore, an anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on the
Police website.
Yours sincerely
Inspector Jason Ross
Acting Director: Capability Police National Headquarters