Mental health a major factor in NZ police shootings

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-01-19 09:22

New Zealand

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A significant number of police shootings in New Zealand have involved a mental health event, an analysis of 258 Independent Police Conduct Authority reports reveal. Between 1995 and 2019 while only 18 per cent of the cases analysed involved mental health-related events, forty per cent of these resulted in shootings, compared with only 15 per cent for other cases. Shootings involving mental health events also more often resulted in deaths. Nearly 90 per cent of the individuals had family or whānau who were aware of their mental distress at the time of the shooting, but less than half had accessed mental health services, suggesting there are opportunities to intervene earlier.