Counties Manukau, Waikato and Bay of Plenty have reported the most assaults on police officers compared to other parts of the country.
Police health and safety data released to Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act shows those districts have reported at least 100 assaults yearly since 2021.
In the past four years, there were 453 assaults in Counties Manukau, 465 in Waikato and 549 in Bay of Plenty.
Other districts had less than a hundred assaults reported yearly.
Total assaults on officers across the country were at least 950 incidents yearly since 2020, and rose to more than 1,000 from 2022.
A police spokesperson said they’re acutely aware of the dangers their staff face daily and their safety is a top priority for leaders.
"It’s our responsibility to ensure our people get home safely every night to their families, and we are constantly looking at ways to enhance the safety of our staff, through improved tactics and training."
Police said the higher number of assaults in those districts could be due to several reasons, including population size, the number of officers working there, how many callouts they respond to, and the number of public interactions.
Police Association president Chris Cahill said those have been identified as high-risk districts due to the number of gang members and firearm incidents.
“They are three of our high-risk districts that we monitor closely to see what the changing risks are for our members there,” he said.
Cahill claimed they’ve also seen a growing defiance against Police in different parts of the country in the recent years.
“The key message I get from our members is people are more willing to assault Police officers, are more willing to confront them and are less compliant.”
Cahill also has concerns about the health and safety data, claiming it’s significantly underreported compared to a different Police data they refer to.
“If police will have processes in place to manage the health and safety risk, they should have the correct data.
“The figures in the police data are double those numbers, so it’s a much more significant risk that requires a different approach,” Cahill said.
A police spokesperson said the health and safety data is gathered from its internal system where employees or supervisors can report an incident, but this is not linked to its operational data.
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