Fishery officers are increasingly facing dangerous and potentially life-threatening situations while carrying out their duties, documents obtained by Newshub show.
Records show officers have been involved in more than 50 threatening situations over the last five years, involving knives, vehicles, a meat cleaver, an iron spike and even a gun on one occasion.
The information, obtained from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) under the Official Information Act (OIA), show five officers have been assaulted over that time frame, including an incident where an officer was hit with a vehicle and then punched.
Another officer was left with fractured ribs and minor head injuries during an assault while on an overseas operation in the Solomon Islands.
There have been 50 other attempted assaults or serious threats, including incidents involving armed gang members and organised crime. On one occasion in 2017, a fishery officer quit their job after someone threatened them with a knife.
Officers have threatened in many different spheres of public and private life, including incidents where they were followed to their homes, tailgated while driving and threatened in the workplace.
Fishery officers are public servants who are tasked with protecting the fisheries by inspecting the catch of recreational and commercial fishers. They have the power to confiscate illegal catches and even arrest offenders.
An example of the kinds of threats they experience was witnessed by Senior Fishery Officer Louise Jamieson, who found herself in a dangerous situation in the small North Canterbury fishing community of Motunau two years ago.
Fishery officers had apprehended three men gathering paua but things turned violent when they were asked to hand over their bag.
"There was a baseball bat in the car that one of them tried to bring out, there was a knife, I remember hearing, 'put the knife down, put the knife down'," Ms Jamieson says.
"He said to [another officer] that, 'snitches get stitches', so that is a threat, that he's going to harm her, and he also said that he's going to find out where she lived."
Police were called before any violence took place, however the OIA request shows incidents like these are on the rise, with threats up from three in 2013 to 15 in 2017.
There are serious consequences for obstructing or threatening a fisheries officer - you can be arrested, hauled to court and fined up to $250,000.
Janice Gemmell of the National Union of Public Employees wants workers provided with more tools for their protection.
"We would like to see pepper spray available, we'd like to see body cameras available, which you'd turn on in the event of a situation, you'd tell the offender, we're turning this on, we're recording," she says.
The MPI already provides stab resistant vests and say they are considering body cameras, but admit the process is at a very early stage. They did not respond to requests for comment around pepper spray.
Of course, in the vast majority of cases attended by fishery officers, there is no violent or intimidating behaviour. There's even sympathy from those who do follow the rules, like Motunau fisher Michael Loe.
"[It's] terrible, it makes it hard for these guys here, they're only doing their job," he says.
Ms Jamieson says no one deserves to be threatened at work and she just wants to know her family won't be affected.
"I'm not afraid to say, I shake a bit if someone's going to get all bolshy and in my face, it's uncomfortable, it does make you think, what if? What are they gonna do next?" she says.
"We have a job to do, and we go out, and we do it, and we go home at the end of the day and we want to know that no one's going to bother us.
"How would you think you would feel if your family members had this happen to them? You know we're just people, we might wear this uniform but we're not robots, we're people."
Brave words - officers undeterred and determined to do what is right, despite the threats.
Summary of Assaults:
- Two officers assaulted while attempting to handcuff a non-compliant offender;
- An officer was assaulted with a vehicle and then punched during a routine fisheries checkpoint inspection;
- An officer was assaulted by an offender during a routine fisheries inspection;
- An officer was left with minor head injuries and fractured ribs after an assault by local parties outside of their hotel on an overseas operation in the Solomon Islands.
Summary of Attempted Assaults:
- An attempt was made by a landowner to assault an officer with a flat-ended shovel;
- An attempt was made to assault an officer with a walking stick and later a vehicle;
- A fisherman attempted to assault an officer with a vehicle;
- A fisherman attempted to assault an officer with a vehicle door;
- A gang member attempted to assault an officer by grabbing hold of him;
- Two divers attempted to assault an officer with a vehicle.
Brief Summary of Attempted Assaults:
Officers were;
- Followed to their home and threatened;
- Threatened with a machete while speaking to offenders;
- Threatened with an iron spike while trying to inspect a catch;
- Faced with an individual threatening to injure themselves during an inspection;
- Threatened with a meat cleaver aboard a fishing vessel;
- Threatened by a gang member over the phone;
- Threatened with a baton while inspecting a diver's catch;
- Threatened with a gun while attempting to interview an individual at their home;
- Threatened at an MPI office;
- Threatened by a gang member and two others who had knifes;
- Tailgated by a known offender after attempting to deliver documents;
- Threatened with a knife and later quit over the incident.
Newshub.
