Police have been strongly criticised for the way they carried out an armed operation that left four police officers seriously injured.
Police at the scene of the Kawerau siege in March. Photo: Diego Opatowski
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) said the tactical decision-making and control exercised in Kawerau in March 2016 was highly flawed, and put police officers at risk.
In March 2016 Rhys Warren fired a gun at a police officer taking cannabis plants from near his Bay of Plenty home, and a police marked plane overhead.
The Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) came to the scene and cordoned the house.
A team went into the home at about 3.30pm, and Warren fired three shots - seriously injuring three officers.
Police fired 46 shots towards him as they left the house.
Later that afternoon, Warren shot another police officer.
He surrendered himself the next morning, and was jailed in 2017.
The officers should not have gone into the Warren family's home, which put them at considerable risk, the IPCA found.
IPCA said a lack of proper oversight contributed to flawed tactical decisions.
The communications centre had not been told the operation to take cannabis plants from a house was happening, and those carrying out that operation hadn't done a risk assessment, the report said.
A police dog wearing protective boots and camera. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Police
Assistant Commissioner Districts Bill Searle said police accepted the findings of the report.
"This was one of those occasions where a lot of things didn't go right, and it contributed to the overall outcome," Mr Searle said.
"If there was one thing in particular, it's in relation to communication of command and control - what I mean by that is the person in charge of the operation changed a number of times, which is quite normal for an operation like this.
"What we needed to focus on was communicating who was in charge at those various stages."
Mr Searle said police had made changes at a district and national level, including more planning and oversight of the annual National Cannabis and Crime Operation.
This included rolling out a new Planned Action Risk Assessment tool, and refreshing the training of AOS squads.
Officers at the scene had been reluctant to send dogs into the house as there was broken glass - and as a result police dogs would have leather boots ready to be used at all times.
Mr Searle said the four men shot were all back at work, but one had taken a job outside of police, and another still had "some ongoing issues".
