police to investigate<\/a> themselves, leaving them shocked and concerned.<\/p>\nActing Hamilton City Area Commander Senior Sergeant Aimee Whitley told NZME police can\u2019t comment as the matter was under investigation.<\/p>\n
The IPCA confirmed it has referred the case to police to investigate and is \u201cactively overseeing\u201d that investigation.<\/p>\n
It would then review the final report and provide feedback.<\/p>\n
Drunk and rowdy<\/p>\n
Turner admits being drunk and a bit rowdy when he was in Hamilton\u2019s CBD on the evening of March 20.<\/p>\n
As he was removed from Lucky Finns bar, he kept asking what he\u2019d done wrong and spoke back to the officers, who then put him in the back of their van.<\/p>\n
He continued asking them what he\u2019d done wrong and asking for their badge numbers, before being dropped off outside Hamilton Central Police Station on Anzac Parade, with a trespass notice.<\/p>\n
Two officers came out of the station and watched on as Turner then slapped the back of the van\u2019s window as it drove off. <\/p>\n
CCTV footage shows Turner walking back up the street. He then notices the two officers who had come out of the station. <\/p>\n
An agreed summary of facts document said Turner was \u201cyelling abuse\u201d and \u201cshowing his arms in a way to signal he wanted to fight the constables\u201d.<\/p>\n
The CCTV then shows Turner standing in a T shape with his arms outstretched as the officers approach him.<\/p>\n
As the officer presents a Taser, Turner spins around to run and is then shot with it.<\/p>\n
In the statement of the officer who fired the stun gun, obtained by NZME, he states that Turner approached them \u201cin a threatening manner with closed fists and puffing his chest upwards in an intimidating manner\u201d.<\/p>\n
When Turner had his arms out, \u201cTurner\u2019s face was one of malice when making this pose\u201d.<\/p>\n
The officer placed Turner as \u201cassaultive\u201d on the tactical options framework and fired the Taser, \u201cto prevent him escaping and potentially assaulting others\u201d, the statement said.<\/p>\n
Turner was originally charged with disorderly behaviour and escaping custody.<\/p>\n
His counsel, Mark Jepson, said the escaping charge was withdrawn after discussions with police and Turner was sentenced by Community Magistrate Kim Davies on the remaining charge. <\/p>\n
Jepson suggested his client receive a fine, but after hearing what happened, Davies only issued a conviction and discharge.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019d already surrendered\u2019<\/p>\n
Turner told NZME he got \u201cpissed off\u201d with the officers after they wouldn\u2019t give him their names or badge numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sort of set me off after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, they tasered me after that, but he already had his Taser ready to go. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see in the video he already had it out, but I\u2019d already surrendered to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the exchange with the officer as he was standing with his arms out, \u201cthey said, \u2018you\u2019re under arrest\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018oh all right yep\u2019, put my arms up, and then as soon as they pulled the Taser up on me, that\u2019s when I turned around and was like \u2018oh hell no\u2019.<\/p>\n
![\"Hamilton]()
Hamilton man Caleb Turner has lodged an IPCA complaint claiming excessive force was used. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then they shot me in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then tripped and fell in the gutter and was then jumped on by at least one officer, from a group he hadn\u2019t seen sprinting up the road.<\/p>\n
Turner maintains he wasn\u2019t a threat and disputes what was in the officer\u2019s statement about him trying to fight them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was walking off the road. I wasn\u2019t even looking at them until they called out and said I was under arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not telling the truth because I didn\u2019t have my fists up trying to fight them because I wouldn\u2019t try to fight the police, that\u2019s just stupid. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was angry, I was frustrated … but I wasn\u2019t trying to fight the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019s not doing anything wrong\u2019<\/p>\n
His mother Deborah Turner told NZME she was \u201cshocked\u201d by what she saw in the CCTV footage. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at the video, and he\u2019s not doing anything wrong. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got his arms up.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it was confronting to see the group of police officers sprinting towards him. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven when you look at the video and you see police running towards him, Caleb didn\u2019t know those [cops] were there.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaleb thought those ribs were broken because he\u2019d fallen on the gutter when he was tasered … but he was jumped on.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Caleb]()
Caleb Turner stands in a T shape as police walk towards him before tasering him, as a group of Public Safety Officers sprint up the road.<\/p>\n
She was also unimpressed with the officer\u2019s statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey said he was walking towards them with his fists up and chest puffed and that he was wanting to fight them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is absolutely false. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo they covered their a*** because they didn\u2019t think that we would get the CCTV.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she was already a cynic about the IPCA, as she\u2019d spoken with others who had all had their claims turned down, so filing the complaint was partially a box-ticking exercise.<\/p>\n
However, despite that, when she got a response back from them in late June, saying they had referred it back to police for investigation, she was still \u201csomewhat taken aback\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find it somewhat concerning that the police will investigate themselves.<\/p>\n
![\"At]()
At least one officer is on top of Caleb Turner, while others sprint towards him, after he was shot with a Taser on Anzac Ave, Hamilton, in March. <\/p>\n
\u201cTheir investigation will be passed on to the IPCA for their \u2018overview of the adequacy of their investigation\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have thought that even if the police are doing the leg work, that all information would be fed back to the IPCA to make their conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems the police hold all the strings in this.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we know that what they report or put in their investigation is not flawed or bits left out?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems very odd to us, and definitely not an independent investigation like it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had looked up police policy on Tasers and found officers can\u2019t taser someone for not being compliant. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey can only taser them if they\u2019re resisting arrest and being a threat to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told NZME she wants the officers to be held to account for their behaviour.<\/p>\n
She also wants the case highlighted \u201cto stop the institution from covering up what our police are doing to members of the public\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice used to be trained in de-escalation, but now it seems they are the ones escalating problems within our community. This needs to be addressed through the police system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Four categories of complaint\u2019<\/p>\n
The IPCA wouldn\u2019t comment on Turner\u2019s case but in its latest annual report, it describes the categorisation of complaints.<\/p>\n
Category A cases are deemed the most serious and are investigated by the IPCA. They usually involve death or serious injury, corruption or deliberate wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
Category B is where police investigate with IPCA oversight. The IPCA then carries out a \u201cfull, independent review to confirm that all complaint issues have been addressed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Category C is where the issues are clear, there\u2019s no investigation into police behaviour and the matter can be resolved \u201cquickly, efficiently\u201d.<\/p>\n
Category D are cases of \u201cno real substance\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018To be used when fear imminent harm\u2019<\/p>\n
NZME reviewed the police Taser \u201cUse of Force\u201d policy statement and principles, which stated officers should only show or use a Taser in accordance with the officer\u2019s \u201cperceived cumulative assessment of the circumstances and the subject\u2019s behaviour at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n
An officer may use it \u201cin situations where you fear imminent physical harm to yourself or some other person\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the likelihood of physical harm is no longer present, the use of Taser will no longer be necessary and therefore, no longer be reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n
Join NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a new podcast examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. Listen on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But CCTV footage of the incident, supplied to NZME, shows him standing in a T shape with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,12116,9218,682,13912,138,61290,12797,33352,6288,14236,14566,5840,101,5158,23362,111,139,69,10932,193,675,90935,102436,38637,184541,103106,413,4518,6123,102,4576],"class_list":["post-525237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-arms","tag-before","tag-being","tag-broken","tag-business","tag-caleb","tag-complaint","tag-files","tag-hamilton","tag-held","tag-ipca","tag-least","tag-left","tag-man","tag-needed","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-other","tag-police","tag-pounced","tag-ribs","tag-surrender","tag-surrendering","tag-tasered","tag-turner","tag-weeks","tag-while","tag-with","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525237","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=525237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}