a NEW ZEALAND POLICE Ngé Pirihimana 0 Aotearoa 24 April 2021 Our Reference: ma Tena koe ia |lam responding to your request dated 29 March 2021. You wrote: 1. How many illegal pistols have been found/recovered in the last few years (ideally since 2000 if possible)? 2. Of those above, how many or what percent were found to match records/serials stolen from licensed/permitted pistols? 3. Of those in #1, how many have never matched permitted records? ‘When police officers encounter firearms in the course of their normal duties, and they have concems about these firearms, they have the option to seize the firearms under the provisions of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012. Two provisions commonly used are ‘sections 18 (warrantless searches associated with arms) and 6 (search warrant). These correspond to the five powers listed below that are selected when a firearm seizure is recorded. 1. Section 18(1) and (2) warrantless search of person and/or any thing in the Person's possession or under their control (including a vehicle) and seizure of arms found, because that person is in breach of the Arms Act 1983; 2. Section 18(1) and (2) warrantless search of person and/or any thing in the person's possession or under their control (including a vehicle) and seizure of arms found, because as a result of that person's physical or mental condition they may kill or ‘cause bodily injury; 3. Section 18(1) and (2) warrantless search of person and/or any thing in the Person's possession or under their control (including a vehicle) and seizure of arms found, because under the Family Violence Act 2018 there is a protection order in force or there are grounds to make an application against the person for a protection order; Police National Headquarters. 180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. Telephone: 04 474 9499, Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz,4. Section 18 (3) warrantless entry and search of any place or vehicle, and seizure of any arms found, because there are reasonable grounds to suspect there are arms in that place or vehicle: : in respect of which a category 3 or 4 offence, or offence against the Arms ‘Act 1983 has been committed, or is being committed, or is about to be ‘committed; : that may be evidential material in relation to a category 3 or 4 offence or ‘an offence against the Arms Act 1983 5. __ Section 6 entry, search and seizure powers for arms authorised by search warrant. ‘As you can see, none of the options are “illegal firearms". The firearms may in fact be held legally at the time of the seizure or they may be held illegally by a person who does not have a licence or the appropriate pistol endorsement. The term “prohibited firearm’ is a new category applied to a group of firearms described in section 2(A) of the Arms Act 1983 which took effect on 12 April 2019. However, pistols did not become prohibited firearms at that time. In June 2020, certain specified pistols became prohibited’. In full calendar years 2013-2020 (inclusive), 593 pistols were seized by Police i ‘accordance with section 6 or section 18 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012, As mentioned above, they were not necessarily held illegally prior to the seizure. ‘These sections of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 came into force on 1 October 2012. Prior to October 2012, firearms seizures were conducted in accordance with the now repealed sections 60-61 of the Arms Act 1983. Prior to 2012, seized firearms data ‘was recorded in a different system which did not have a field for recording a serial number. The portion of your question that refers to years 2000-2013 is refused in ‘accordance with section 18(g) of the Official Information Act 1982 as the information is not held, and | have no grounds to believe the information is held by another agency. You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. ‘Serial numbers were recorded in the Firearms Search and Seizure database for 47 of these 593 pistols. This can happen if the officer could not identify the serial number or it ‘was removed from the firearm. Of these 47 pistols with serial numbers, four had been reported stolen and 10 were recorded on a permit (including the four that had been reported stolen). The remaining 37 have not been reported stolen and have not been matched to a permit recorded in the Police National Intelligence Application (NIA). It is possible the serial numbers were recorded differently which precludes them being matched (for example, a number could be misread such as a5 confused with an S or a 3).Itis also possible that the pistols were part of a bulk import that was not recorded in NIA. When firearms are imported into the country, Regulation 13 of the Arms Regulations 1992 requires an importer to advise Police of the import within 30 days. Ifa person advises Police that an import has arrived, Police may hold the information locally but not record it centrally. ‘There is also the possibility that Police may not be notified at all. Police has limited ability to enforce this requirement of the applicant for the permit. However, in 2020, Police has established a system where New Zealand Customs Service Notifies Police of all arrivals of firearms, and then a central Police unit contacts the licence holder and records all the makes, models, and serial numbers of each firearm that has ‘entered the country on that permit. However, this has been done only since 2020 and no historical data has been back-entered. For your information, Police has developed a process for proactive release of information, so the anonymised response to your request may be publicly released on the New Zealand Police website. Yours sincerely C-_ Inspector Nicholas Brown Acting Director Capability, Frontline Capability,