{"id":459917,"date":"2026-06-04T03:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/459917\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T03:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:14:12","slug":"police-got-it-wrong-in-high-risk-rotorua-pursuit-that-killed-15-year-old-ipca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/459917\/","title":{"rendered":"Police \u2018got it wrong\u2019 in high-risk Rotorua pursuit that killed 15-year-old – IPCA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPolice 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gear\u2019s family described their boy as a beloved, kind-hearted wh\u0101nau member who had \u201ccountless opportunities ahead of him\u201d. His death was \u201cthe loss of a future that should have been allowed to unfold\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement, police<\/a> said staff came to work every day to keep communities safe and \u201cthis type of incident is something we never want to happen\u201d. Decisions were made based on the best available information at the time, but they had \u201cidentified learnings from this incident\u201d and changes had been made to an internal police application to ensure information was presented in real time. <\/p>\n

Police had initially decided not to pursue the car, seeing the risk of doing so outweighed \u201cas the driver\u2019s offending was only traffic-related\u201d. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe crash scene on Vaughan Rd. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr 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,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey had not committed offences that reached the threshold for a pursuit. Police \u2018got it wrong\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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,\u201d the IPCA said in its report. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure to request an update ultimately led to a pursuit based on an incorrect assumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, the IPCA<\/a> noted it was not always possible for officers to hear live updates on the police radio and \u201cit was not always practical for members to ask for updates over radio due to heavy or priority traffic\u201d, but \u201cat the very least, Responder should have [been] messaging that the information contained in it may not be complete or accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s car struck a van travelling in the opposite direction. <\/p>\n

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 \u201cgiven what he (the dispatcher) knew, and the confusion around why the officers were pursuing the black car\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our view, failures in communication ultimately led to a high-risk pursuit based on partial information and incorrect assumptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Gear\u2019s family said the death of their \u201cbeloved son, brother, uncle, mokopuna, nephew and cousin\u201d had had a devastating and lasting impact on the family. His death was swiftly followed three weeks later by the loss of the family\u2019s grandmother, Sabrina Kiel, then a year later by Gear\u2019s father, Jeffrey Gear. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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 wh\u0101nau throughout this process has been immense. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe witnessed first-hand the toll that this tragedy and the year that followed took on Jeffrey\u2019s health and well-being. The weight of grief, loss, and unanswered questions affected him deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family said their boy was \u201ca kind-hearted, hard-working, thoughtful and vibrant young man\u201d who was full of life with \u201ccountless opportunities ahead of him\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the loss of the dreams he held, the milestones he would never reach, and the memories his wh\u0101nau would never have the chance to create with him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gear\u2019s family said that despite his young age, he was working fulltime and saving hard to buy his first car. He was \u201cdetermined, motivated and focused on building a future for himself \u2013 a future not only restricted to Rotorua … but overseas, where he planned to gain a trade for future goals\u201d. <\/p>\n

Gear had spoken about these aspirations with his wh\u0101nau. In the statement, his family said no report or investigation into their boy\u2019s death could bring him back, but the findings did affirm \u201cwhat our wh\u0101nau have known from the outset \u2014 that critical errors and multiple failures occurred in the lead-up to and during the pursuit and the tragic crash\u201d that took his life.<\/p>\n

Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Will Loughrin said decisions were made based on the best available information across a very short timeframe and \u201cmanaging radio traffic more effectively may be desirable, but is not always immediately achievable\u201d.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolice have put measures in place to support our people in terms of decision-making during pursuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Loughrin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident has given us an opportunity to further review process and standard practices to determine whether they are still fit for purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPolice should not have been pursuing Mr Z (Gear) at the time he crashed. The failings of multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13236,186272,1124,34749,15293,124,1874,17881,3606,305,42,2251,78,48231,21556,14566,702,3375,43,17177,675,85522,1327,47066,1361,8229,20110,40,38,41,39,3608,1316,25152,12475],"class_list":["post-459917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-15yearold","tag-assumptions","tag-authority","tag-conduct","tag-continued","tag-could","tag-found","tag-got","tag-gun","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-highrisk","tag-in","tag-incorrect","tag-independent","tag-ipca","tag-it","tag-killed","tag-news","tag-operating","tag-police","tag-pursuit","tag-rotorua","tag-teenagers","tag-that","tag-they","tag-thought","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-were","tag-when","tag-wrong","tag-wrongly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}