page_title: Armed Offenders Squad
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Armed Offenders Squad / History
caption_attribution_description: More Photos available at www.111emergency.co.nz
context_page_description: The Armed Offenders Squad are specialist part-time units of the New Zealand Police based around the country available to respond to high risk incidents using specialist tactics and equipment.
  The AOS was established when front-line police officers did not carry firearms. While today officers still do not routinely carry sidearms, they have ready access to firearms if required, including high-powered rifles, and receive firearms training. A new expanding role for the AOS is assisting with planned operations.
context_section_description: In 1963, the unarmed New Zealand Police lost four police officers killed by lone gunmen in two separate firearms incidents at Waitakere, Auckland in January 1963 and at Lower Hutt, Wellington in February 1963. The detective who investigated the Waitakere killings recommended the creation of a unit to deal with armed offenders spending time with the New South Wales Police Emergency Squad. The AOS was formally started in August 1964 trained by the New Zealand Special Air Service (NZSAS) with the philosophy of "cordon, contain and appeal".
  One of the highest-profile AOS interventions is their action during the Aramoana massacre on 13–14 November 1990, which involved at least 150 police officers. Officers from the Special Tactics Group were also present at the crisis. Sergeant Stewart Guthrie, an NCO in the AOS, was killed in the massacre, although he arrived alone with only a revolver, ahead of the fully equipped team from Dunedin.
  On 15 October 2007, members of the AOS and the full-time Special Tactics Group conducted several raids across New Zealand in response to the uncovering of alleged paramilitary training camps deep in the Urewera mountain ranges. Roughly 300 police were involved in the raids. Four guns and roughly 230 rounds of ammunition were seized and 17 people were arrested. According to the police the raids were a culmination of more than a year of surveillance that uncovered and monitored the training camps. The warrants were executed under the Summary Proceedings Act, the Terrorism Suppression Act, and the Arms Act. Raids were conducted in Wellington, Christchurch, Taupo and Tauranga. Allegations of New Zealand Police searching a school bus also surfaced.
  The AOS were also involved in a shooting on a motorway in Auckland on 23 January 2009. A squad member accidentally shot and killed innocent teenager Halatau Naitoko as a gunman threatened a truck driver, and Naitoko was caught in the line of fire. A former police inspector called for the squad member who shot Naitoko to be charged while AOS training would be changed to avoid future incidents similar to the Naitoko case.
  The AOS was involved in the 2009 Napier shootings with the Special Tactics Group. The AOS has fatally shot several people.
  In November 2009, TV One screened a three part documentary Line of Fire.
  During the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, the AOS arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the first emergency call was placed.
caption: Wellington AOS member in 2008
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