Four Hawke's Bay police officers have been acquitted of assaulting a man shortly before he died while under arrest.

Gregory McPeake, 53, died in a Westshore Beach carpark on March 13, 2015.

Three of the officers can now be named. They are senior constable Andrew Knox, constable Rochelle Bryant and constable Alexander Simister.

Lawyer Jonathan Krebs successfully argued for continued name suppression of the fourth officer.

All of the officers pleaded not guilty to one charge of assaulting Mr McPeake with a weapon - Bryant and Simister with a taser and Knox and the fourth officer with a police dog.

The trial which started last week, centred on whether the force used in trying to apprehend Mr McPeake was appropriate or excessive.

It took the jury less than an hour to find the officers not guilty.

The court had heard that at 179kg Mr McPeake was morbidly obese, in ill-health, had taken drugs, and was suicidal.

It was agreed nothing any officer did had a "causal link" to the death.

Evidence revealed that six officers advanced on Mr McPeake's two-door car with the acting sergeant in a patrol car making voice appeals for him to get out of the car.

When he did not get out, an assault on the vehicle was launched, with the windows being smashed, and OC Spray and Tasers used on the man before dogs also entered the vehicle.

Mr McPeake was ultimately forced out, began vomiting as he lay on the ground, and died despite first aid from police and ambulance staff.

During the trial, lawyers for the four officers maintained they used reasonable force when confronting Mr McPeake.

At the time they believed he was armed and dangerous as just hours earlier he had seriously assaulted his father.