By Simon Bradwell for Newshub
As the Police Commissioner clarifies his stance on arming police with sponge rounds, Newshub can reveal examples where they have been used in the past.
Close to 80 percent of people shot by police sponge rounds had mental health issues, figures provided to Newshub under the Official Information Act (OIA) show.
Police have used the controversial sponge rounds on 14 people in the last five years - and in at least 11 of those cases, the rounds were used on someone with mental health issues.
But Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has defended their use.
"The use of sponge rounds in these instances has likely prevented people from being seriously injured or killed," he said in a statement on Thursday.
Sponge rounds have faced criticism since Commissioner Andrew Coster suggested they might be more widely used after police axed their Armed Response Teams trial.
They were also used by US police during the Black Lives Matter protests, and in some cases caused severe injuries.
Police use a XM1006 round, which is fired from a gas launcher, and can be used from a distance of 30 metres. Overseas, it has been linked to deaths when people have been hit in the head by the 40mm rounds.
In Tactical Options Reports released by police, nine of the people shot with sponge rounds are described as "suicidal". In one case, the incident is described as "subject was in the act of committing suicide".
In that incident, the man was shot in the buttock by a sponge round.
Other incidents when police used sponge rounds include when people:
- Threatened non-police
- Used any weapon against police, threatened police
- Threatened police, set fire to the unit he was in
- Physically assaulted non-police
One person had a firearm, seven a 'cutting/stabbing weapon', and four 'bludgeoning weapons'.
No one was reported as hit in the head or face by a sponge round, with five people hit in the chest, and others in the leg, buttock, abdomen, shoulder, neck and groin.
Injuries were mostly described as "swelling/bruising" but two were classified as "other", with no further detail. Only one woman was shot by a sponge round, while six cases were in Waikato.
As well as mental health incidents, police described events as domestic disputes, breaching the peace and executing search warrants.
On Thursday afternoon, Coster said there were no immediate plans to roll out the weapon to frontline officers. Critics of the sponge round in New Zealand say their increased use would lead to a militarisation of police.
Police refused to release the costs of the sponge rounds. However in 2013, when sponge rounds were first adopted by police, the cost of buying and deploying 850 rounds was $24,905.
Police and the Mental Health Foundation have been approached for comment.
