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Police launch security audit after 11 guns stolen from Palmerston North station

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 29 Apr 2019, 9:21AM
They managed to recover eight guns but the remaining are yet to be found. Photo / File.

Police launch security audit after 11 guns stolen from Palmerston North station

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 29 Apr 2019, 9:21AM

The police have launched a security audit after 11 guns were stolen from a Palmerston North police station.

Police arrested Alan James Harris who was sought after a burglary at the Palmerston North police station on Thursday morning.

They managed to recover eight guns but the remaining are yet to be found.

Deputy Police Commissioner, Mike Clement, told Mike Hosking the incident is unacceptable.

"It's not good enough, we set ourselves a high standard and we fell short of it and the consequence was 11 firearms [were] stolen out of secure storage in a police station."

He said the man managed to break through a secure, locked door and take the guns.

"The offender who was arrested on Saturday was able to access the building through an insecure door but then struck a secure door which was locked and alarmed but still managed to get through that regrettably."

Clement said the man was probably just an 'opportunist' who was able to take the guns.

He said while the guns were stored securely they weren't stored in the strong room, which is where they should have been.

"That's something that we are going to investigate as part of our audit."

However, Clement said the strong rooms aren't big enough to deal with the number of guns that will be arriving because of the military style, semi-automatic weapon ban.

"We have known from the outset that the thousands if not tens of thousands of firearms we are talking about, can't fit in strong rooms in police stations. And neither is it ideal for people to be rocking up to police stations without some sort of prior appointment."

He said they are following Australia's lead and will be going to the gun owners to collect guns, as well as setting up community collection points.

Clement said the "word is out" to police officers to make sure their guns are stored correctly.

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