“Police should not have been pursuing Mr Z (Gear) at the time he crashed. The failings of multiple members of Police were a significant factor that contributed to this crash.”
Gear’s family described their boy as a beloved, kind-hearted whānau member who had “countless opportunities ahead of him”. His death was “the loss of a future that should have been allowed to unfold”.
In a statement, police said staff came to work every day to keep communities safe and “this type of incident is something we never want to happen”. Decisions were made based on the best available information at the time, but they had “identified learnings from this incident” and changes had been made to an internal police application to ensure information was presented in real time.
Police had initially decided not to pursue the car, seeing the risk of doing so outweighed “as the driver’s offending was only traffic-related”.
However, when an officer in a second unit said over police radio the pair could be the two teenagers reportedly seen brandishing a firearm seven minutes earlier, both units began to pursue the teens.
The crash scene on Vaughan Rd. Photo / NZME
Prior to the pursuit beginning, police had been told over radio that the firearm reportedly witnessed by a member of the public had been a toy, but the officers involved in the pursuit had not heard that information.
“Mr Y and Mr (Gear) were not the teenagers sought by police in relation to waving the (toy) firearm around in public. They were not in possession of a firearm,” the report said.
“They had not committed offences that reached the threshold for a pursuit. Police ‘got it wrong’.
“Other officers and the dispatcher knew that the firearm the CCTV operator concluded was a toy, yet none communicated this information over the radio during the pursuit.”
It was also not swiftly reported on the internal phone application, Responder, that officers also use for updates. The IPCA was critical of some of the officers involved not seeking updates regarding the firearm incident.
“While en route, (one of the officers involved) should have requested an update over the Police radio. Had he done so, the officers would have very likely learned the firearm had been determined to be a toy and the response had been de-escalated,” the IPCA said in its report.
“The failure to request an update ultimately led to a pursuit based on an incorrect assumption.”
At the same time, the IPCA noted it was not always possible for officers to hear live updates on the police radio and “it was not always practical for members to ask for updates over radio due to heavy or priority traffic”, but “at the very least, Responder should have [been] messaging that the information contained in it may not be complete or accurate.”
The pursuit lasted around 90 seconds with the vehicles involved averaging between 85-90km per hour. One of the police cars reached about 126 km per hour in a 50km zone. The pursuit ended when Gear’s car struck a van travelling in the opposite direction.
The IPCA concluded the officers were justified in initiating the pursuit based on what they mistakenly believed to be the circumstances at the time but the pursuit should have been called off by the dispatcher soon after it was initiated “given what he (the dispatcher) knew, and the confusion around why the officers were pursuing the black car”.
“In our view, failures in communication ultimately led to a high-risk pursuit based on partial information and incorrect assumptions.”
In a statement, Gear’s family said the death of their “beloved son, brother, uncle, mokopuna, nephew and cousin” had had a devastating and lasting impact on the family. His death was swiftly followed three weeks later by the loss of the family’s grandmother, Sabrina Kiel, then a year later by Gear’s father, Jeffrey Gear.
“This tragedy did not end with his passing. In a very short period of time, our family lost three generations. The pain, heartbreak, stress, and emotional burden carried by our whānau throughout this process has been immense.
“We witnessed first-hand the toll that this tragedy and the year that followed took on Jeffrey’s health and well-being. The weight of grief, loss, and unanswered questions affected him deeply.”
The family said their boy was “a kind-hearted, hard-working, thoughtful and vibrant young man” who was full of life with “countless opportunities ahead of him”.
“His future was one of promise, hope, and possibility. The loss of Trustis was not only the loss of a young life; it was the loss of a future that should have been allowed to unfold.
“It was the loss of the dreams he held, the milestones he would never reach, and the memories his whānau would never have the chance to create with him.”
Gear’s family said that despite his young age, he was working fulltime and saving hard to buy his first car. He was “determined, motivated and focused on building a future for himself – a future not only restricted to Rotorua … but overseas, where he planned to gain a trade for future goals”.
Gear had spoken about these aspirations with his whānau. In the statement, his family said no report or investigation into their boy’s death could bring him back, but the findings did affirm “what our whānau have known from the outset — that critical errors and multiple failures occurred in the lead-up to and during the pursuit and the tragic crash” that took his life.
Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Will Loughrin said decisions were made based on the best available information across a very short timeframe and “managing radio traffic more effectively may be desirable, but is not always immediately achievable”.
Changes had been made to the Responder application so that officers could access it on their mobile devices, to ensure that real time and up-to-date information was always available to those officers once it became available, he said.
“Police have put measures in place to support our people in terms of decision-making during pursuits.
“We have identified learnings from this incident, and we continue work to ensure that any pursuit undertaken is done so appropriately, with the correct information at the forefront of any decision-making processes,” Loughrin said.
“This incident has given us an opportunity to further review process and standard practices to determine whether they are still fit for purpose.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.