Zealand Police Research Articles

The Importance of Space and Time in Aggravated Assault Victimization.

Interpersonal crimes such as aggravated assault greatly impacts upon an individuals' sense of personal safety and security as the crime results in a physical injury. Understanding where and when aggravated assaults are most likely to occur is therefore vital to minimize the victimization risk associated with this crime. The main aim of this study is to explore the relative importance of space and time in aggravated assault victimization. This was done using national level aggravated assault data (2008-2010) obtained from New Zealand Police and census data from Statistics New Zealand. Both the spatial and temporal distribution of aggravated assault are outlined to examine their association with aggravated assault victimization. Aggravated assault is found to cluster in space but not in time. The relationships between aggravated assault risk in space and time and a suite of social, economic, and lifestyle variables was then examined. A clear socioeconomic gradient was found between aggravated assault risk by space and all neighborhood characteristics with high-risk neighborhoods having greater residential mobility and ethnic/racial diversity, as well as being more deprived, having higher rates of unemployment, and lower median household incomes. No clear pattern emerged between aggravated assault by time and the selected neighborhood characteristics. The policy implications of these findings in terms of policing and diversity conclude.

Is the development of policy in New Zealand based on Prevention First?

The New Zealand Police, in response to the global financial crisis and escalating operating costs, implemented in 2008 the first of a number of change programs to increase its service delivery efficiency and effectiveness. The programs concentrated on reallocating resources from reactive service delivery to more proactive or preventative activities. By 2012, the change in emphasis enabled the police to reduce its organizational costs and achieve a number of government outcomes. It was hypothesized that owing to the success of the New Zealand Police, other New Zealand Government departments have adopted a preventative approach to reduce long-term social costs. By analyzing the strategic documents of three randomly selected, nonjustice sector government agencies, it was found that all three agencies had changed the focus of their service delivery to concentrate on specific prevention outputs with the intention of improving services and decreasing operating costs.

Long‐term effects of lowering the alcohol minimum purchasing age on traffic crash injury rates in New Zealand

In December 1999, New Zealand lowered the alcohol minimum purchasing age from 20 to 18 years. We tested hypotheses that this change was associated with long-term increases in traffic injury attributable to alcohol-impaired driving among 18- to 19-year-olds (target age group) and 15- to 17-year-olds (affected by 'trickle-down'). We undertook a controlled before-and-after comparison of rates of fatal and non-fatal traffic injury to persons of any age attributable to impaired drivers aged 18-19 years and 15-17 years, versus 20- to 21-year-olds. Crash data including assessment of driver alcohol impairment were recorded by New Zealand Police. The pre-change period was 1996-1999. Post-change periods were 2000-2003, 2004-2007 and 2008-2010. Outcomes were population-based and vehicle travel-based rates. Compared with the change in injury rates attributable to alcohol-impaired 20- to 21-year-old male drivers, injuries attributable to 18- to 19-year-old male drivers increased in all post-change periods and significantly so in the second post-change period (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1 to 1.5). For 15- to 17-year-old male drivers, rates increased in all post-change periods compared with 20- to 21-year-olds, and more so in the second (IRR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.4) and third (IRR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.4) periods. There was a short-term relative increase in harm attributable to 18- to 19-year-old female drivers (IRR 1.5; 1.1 to 2.0). Results were similar for vehicle travel-based rates. Reducing the alcohol minimum purchasing age was followed by long-term increases in the incidence of traffic injury attributable to male 15- to 19-year-old alcohol-impaired drivers. [Kypri K, Davie G, McElduff P, Langley J, Connor J. Long-term effects of lowering the alcohol minimum purchasing age on traffic crash injury rates in New Zealand. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:178-185].

Recent Trends in Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Police Detainees in New Zealand, 2010-2015.

New Zealand has unusual patterns of recreational substance use by international standards including low levels of cocaine and heroin use, and high methamphetamine use. This paper examines recent trends in alcohol and other drug use among police detainees in New Zealand over the past six years. The paper utilises data from the New Zealand Arrestee Drug Use Monitoring (NZ-ADUM) study. NZ-ADUM interviewed approximately 800 police detainees each year at four central city police watch houses (i.e. Whangarei, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch) from 2010 to 2015. The proportion of police detainees who had used methamphetamine in the previous year increased from 28% in 2012 to 36% in 2015. Drinking prior to arrest declined from 41% in 2013 to 28% in 2015. The use of cannabis in the past year declined slightly from 76% in 2011 to 69% in 2015. The proportion using ecstasy in the previous year steadily declined from 28% in 2011 to 19% in 2015. Only small minorities had recently used cocaine or an opioid. Use of methamphetamine and ecstasy increased in Christchurch. Growing methamphetamine use is consistent with record seizures of methamphetamine over the past 2-3years. Increasing drug use in Christchurch may reflect factors related to the devastating earthquakes in 2011 and the subsequent city rebuild, including an influx of construction workers, more organised trafficking groups and earthquake-related stress. The decline in cannabis use may be related to the emergence of 'legal' synthetic cannabinoids. The decline in ecstasy use may be the result of recent domestic enforcement operations and the overall global shortage of MDMA. The decline in alcohol drinking may be due to the introduction of pre-charge formal warnings for minor alcohol and disorder offences, and new restrictions on alcohol premise opening hours. Acknowledgements: The New Zealand Drug Use Monitoring (NZ-ADUM) research study is funded by the New Zealand Police and is conducted by SHORE and Whariki Research Centre, College of Health at Massey University, Auckland. We would like to thank New Zealand Police staff at Whangarei, Auckland Central, Wellington Central and Christchurch Central police watch houses for their assistance and cooperation with this research. We would also like to thank all the interviewers who worked with us on NZ-ADUM and all the police detainees who agreed to be interviewed for the study. The views expressed in this paper are entirely our own and do not necessarily reflect those of New Zealand Police.

The impact of loose coupling on police effectiveness

This paper discusses loose coupling within police organisations, and the implications for police effectiveness. It uses findings from a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews of 121 personnel from New Zealand Police and Queensland Police Service. The study provided insights into the characteristics of loose coupling in police agencies. The paper discusses the implications of these characteristics for the effectiveness of police. It suggests that the perceptions employees hold of the performance management practices that police use influence the extent of loose coupling. This loose coupling has both positive and negative effects. It reduces the ability of senior management to control the behaviour of employees. However, lack of management control does not result in an organisational culture that tolerates poor performance. The study found that strong peer pressure exists within workgroups to support the team and show commitment to doing a good job.

Ghosts of Policing Strategies Past: Is the New Zealand Police ‘Prevention First’ Strategy Historic, Contemporary or the Future?

Since the 1990s the New Zealand Police have introduced three extensive change management programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their core services; Policing 2000, Policing Excellence and Prevention First. Each program has been fundamentally different, with the more modern programs influencing the way that New Zealand Police deliver services. Policing 2000 evolved from implementation of the first strategic plan, while Policing Excellence and Prevention First were introduced in response to the 2007 fiscal crisis. The programs are compared to identify the differences, and whether these later programs can increase service delivery efficiency and effectiveness.

Forensic intelligence in policing: organisational and cultural change

One outcome from a Forensic Intelligence Workshop held by Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) National Institute of Forensic Science (NIFS) in Canberra in October 2011 was the identification that, generally, there is not an intelligence culture within forensic science and organisational and cultural change would be required if forensic science is to play a meaningful role in the intelligence space. Over the past decade, attempts have been made to develop a best practice Integrated Forensic Intelligence Model to improve the integration of crime scene physical evidence, intelligence, and investigative capabilities. Although there has been some progression, it has been isolated, jurisdictionally driven and rarely strategic. This paper begins by examining some of the organisational and cultural barriers to the development and implementation of ‘forensic intelligence’ models in Australian jurisdictions. It goes on to outline the progress that has been made, despite these challenges, towards the development of a forensic intelligence culture in some jurisdictions, and identifies some of the factors that have contributed to this shift. It concludes with some recommendations for a way forward.

Extraditing Kim Dotcom: a case for reforming New Zealand's intelligence community?

Recent disclosures of information concerning the internal workings of New Zealand intelligence agencies offer fertile ground for scholarship reassessing New Zealand's security arrangements. Building upon only a few of these disclosures, this article argues that when the Government Communications Security Bureau decided to assist the New Zealand police with its extradition of Kim Dotcom to the United States it stimulated a flurry of media interest which not only signalled the widespread confusion among the intelligence community over the meaning of national security but also revealed systemic deformities within the intelligence community itself. The article concludes that this confusion over national security and those systemic deformities constitute a prima facie case for reforming New Zealand's intelligence community, though the prospects for an immediate transformation remain dim.

PILOT STUDY

The use of computer software to assist in screening a database of anonymous writings for potential authorship links is investigated. Large databases of writings, such as the New Zealand Police Document Examination Section’s Anonymous Letter Database (ALD) can be unwieldy and time consuming to search manually. CEDAR- FOX is software which can perform a similar role with documents scanned into a computer using some manual processing. The results generated by CEDAR-FOX, the amount of user intervention required, and the time taken to process documents in CEDAR-FOX were examined. On the whole, CEDAR-FOX performed well as a filtering tool, highly ranking documents completed by a common author. However, a number of poor performance results were also obtained. Further research into the operating processes of CEDAR-FOX may explain these observations. It is concluded that CEDAR-FOX cannot yet replace the ALD, although it can operate as a complementary tool for identifying possible authors of handwriting from a large pool.
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New Zealand Land Search and Rescue Operations: An Analysis of Medical and Traumatic Conditions

The aim of this study was to describe the range and types of medical and traumatic conditions encountered in land search and rescue operations in New Zealand. Twenty months (May 2010 to December 2011) of land search and rescue operations were analyzed. Data on medical and traumatic conditions were extracted from the New Zealand Police search and rescue database. During the period audited, New Zealand Police coordinated 1490 land-based search and rescue operations, from which 611 persons fulfilled the study inclusion criteria. Males accounted for 60.5% of the subjects, and a trauma-related injury was the most commonly encountered condition (37.3% of all). The lower limb was the most commonly injured body site, and most injuries occurred as the result of a slip or fall. Medical conditions were recorded in 11.6% of operations and included a wide spread of conditions, with cardiovascular events being seen most frequently. Hypothermia was diagnosed in 9.3% of all operations, and fatalities made up 5.6% of the sample. Thirty percent of all operations were for persons with cognitive impairment who had wandered away from their usual place of residence. These were almost entirely urban searches and concentrated in districts with large populations. Search and rescue personnel are exposed to a broad range of medical and traumatic conditions. In New Zealand, they include preexisting cognitive impairment that results in persons lost in urban environments. Notwithstanding this, many subjects will also need to be managed in remote, resource-limited environments for extended periods. First aid training and field equipment should reflect these demands.

Routinely Armed and Unarmed Police: What can the Scandinavian Experience Teach us?

This article introduces the author's recent study on the 'strategic impact' of routinely arming the New Zealand Police and discusses how two significant research findings are consistent with published theory. First, the utility of taking a binary, black, and white approach when analysing the 'routinely armed versus routinely unarmed' debate, is limited in terms of considering police officer behaviour. This is because police departmental policies shape police officer risk-taking and behaviour to a considerable degree. Second, despite departmental policies, the routine armament of a routinely unarmed police force, say for health and safety reasons, may be counterproductive; such a change exposes police officers to increased risks. Both findings come from an analysis of Scandinavian police forces. The author's study was primarily concerned with the police forces of Norway and Sweden; however, comparisons were made, at times, within a wider Scandinavian context. Language: en

The independent associations of recorded crime and perceived safety with physical health in a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of men and women in New Zealand

ObjectivesWe investigated associations of officially recorded crime and perceived neighbourhood safety with physical health, evaluating potential effect modification by gender.SettingNationally representative population-based survey in New Zealand.ParticipantsIndividual-level data from 6995 New...

More on suppression and the internet in New Zealand

Ursula Cheer brings the reader up-to-date to her article on the decision of the judge in New Zealand Police v KOrs

The Association Between the Fear of Crime, and Mental and Physical Wellbeing in New Zealand

Researchers have provided clear evidence that the fear of crime can lead to various mental health-related issues including anxiety and psychological distress. However, studies on the effects of fear of crime on physical health are limited. Adding to and extending this literature, we evaluated the association between fear of crime and mental and physical health outcomes in a new setting (New Zealand) and at a national scale. As an added contribution to the literature, we examined whether the fear of crime is independently associated with mental and physical wellbeing, regardless of neighbourhood crime rates. Using data from the New Zealand General Social Survey, the 2006 census and the New Zealand Police, we fitted linear and two-level hierarchical linear models regression models to assess the impact of fear of crime on mental and physical health, at varying stages of individual and area-level confounder adjustment. Even after adjusting for a number of individual- and area-level factors that are related to social inequalities in health in the country, a significant effect of increased fear of crime on lower mental and physical wellbeing was detected. We did not, however, detect significant independent effects for neighbourhood crime rates for either outcome. Our findings indicate that fear of crime, rather than recorded crime rates, was associated with detrimental mental and physical health outcomes. As such, efforts to not only reduce crime but perceived risk of crime could yield public health and social wellbeing benefits.

Offending behaviours of child and adolescent firesetters over a 10‐year follow‐up

To assess the postintervention arson recidivism and other offending rates of a group of 182 firesetting children and adolescents referred to the New Zealand Fire Awareness and Intervention Program (FAIP) over a follow-up period of 10years. To investigate predictors of offending behaviour as well as variables associated with previous involvement in firesetting behaviour and offending severity. Data collected at the time of the FAIP intervention was provided by the New Zealand Fire Service and the offence histories of the sample were accessed from the New Zealand Police database (NIA). Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Although the arson recidivism rate was low (2%), rates of general offending were high, with 59% of the sample having committed an offence during the follow-up period. Fifteen percent of the sample was classified as severe offenders, 40% as moderate and 4% as minor. Of offenders, 12.6% had been imprisoned during the follow-up period. Offending was predicted by experience of abuse and a previous firesetting behaviour at the time of the FAIP intervention. Living with both parents at the time of intervention decreased the probability of an individual engaging in future offending behaviour. The presence of family stress and a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) were associated with previous firesetting behaviour. In addition, involvement with family violence (as a perpetrator, complainant or victim) was associated with more severe offending behaviour. In light of existing research, the findings of this study indicate that many firesetters are at risk for future offending and that identification of high-risk individuals is therefore an important consideration for any organization involved with firesetters. To minimize this risk, there is a need for a collaborative, multiagency approach to firesetting behaviour involving comprehensive risk assessment and appropriate referral for at-risk individuals.

Causes of loss or retirement from active duty for New Zealand police German shepherd dogs

AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine the causes of loss from active duty amongst German shepherd dogs in service with the New Zealand Police Dog Section. Current or previous police dog handlers (n = 149) completed a postal survey for each dog they had worked with during their career including their current dog. Causes of loss were categorised as either retirement, euthanasia whilst still in active duty, death from illness/natural causes, or being killed whilst on duty. Of 182 dogs with completed questionnaires, 48 dogs were still in service, leaving 134 that were retired (94), had been euthanased (24), had died (11) or had been killed (5). The mean and median age at loss for all dogs no longer in service was 6.6 years. The nominal age for planned retirement (8 years) was only reached by 40% of dogs. The single most important cause of retirement was the inability to cope with the physical demands of the job (61/94 dogs or 65%). Degenerative musculoskeletal disease was cited as the primary factor in 42/61 of these dogs (69%). When both retired and euthanased dogs where considered together, 27% were retired or euthanased due to back/spinal problems, and a high proportion of these were believed to have involved the lumbosacral joint. Greater research efforts should be targeted at identification of the factors that lead to degenerative musculoskeletal and lumbo-sacral disease to determine methods of lowering their incidence in police working dogs. Such research could lead to increasing the average working life and ‘in work’ welfare of a police German shepherd dog in New Zealand.

‘Cowboy’ Policing versus ‘the Softer Stuff’

This article examines masculinities in relation to the New Zealand police force Community Policing Pilot Program in Timor-Leste (East Timor). We find that despite calls for less militarized, more community-centered approaches to security sector reform, various forms of militarized masculinities persisted within the culture of the New Zealand Police during its international mission. In doing so, we not only complicate singular representations of militarized masculinity, but also challenge accounts that see masculinity as a monolithic negative, violent construct that is engaged with in only problematic ways.

Australian New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency National Institute of Forensic Science (ANZPAA NIFS) – the first 21 years

Australian New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency National Institute of Forensic Science (ANZPAA NIFS) – the first 21 years

Strongyloides,Dengue Fever, and Tuberculosis Conversions in New Zealand Police Deploying Overseas

Members of New Zealand Police (NZP) deploy overseas in a variety of roles. There is limited published data on travel-related morbidity in police as a subgroup of travelers. An audit of pre- and postdeployment medical files for all NZP personnel deploying overseas during 2004 to 2010 was undertaken. Of all deployments, 58.9% were within Oceania. Positive Strongyloides stercoralis serology was returned in 6.07% (95% CI: 3.80%-9.13%) at a rate of 9.00/1,000 person deployment months (pdm) (95% CI: 5.57-13.8). Dengue fever seroconversion was recorded in 4.91% (95% CI: 3.40%-6.83%) at a rate of 8.57/1,000 pdm (95% CI: 5.90-12.0). The relative risk of dengue infection was 7.47 for Timor Leste compared to all other deployment destinations. An association between seroconverting for both dengue fever and Strongyloides was found. Tuberculosis conversion was recorded in 1.76% (95% CI: 0.85%-3.21%) at a rate of 2.92/1,000 pmd (95% CI: 1.48-5.375). A single case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroconversion was recorded. There were no recorded hepatitis C seroconversions. Police deploying overseas appear to have similar rates of dengue and tuberculosis conversion as other groups of travelers, and they appear to be at low risk of hepatitis C and HIV. Strongyloidiasis appears to be a significant risk; postdeployment prevalence was markedly higher than that reported in a small number of studies.

Gender equity in Australian and New Zealand policing: a five-year review

Gender equity in Australian and New Zealand policing: a five-year review