Police are massively scaling up firearms units and training in response to rising gun crime, but the Government is at pains to say the new Tactical Response Teams are not the same as the controversial Armed Response Teams which were scrapped last year.
Constable Matthew Hunt's murder, the tragic result of rising gun crime, and a readiness by offenders to use violence, has shaken the frontline.
"My partner stays awake at night until I get home," says Ros Humphrey, who's just finished her tactical training with the police.
"Every time I go to work the kids are like, 'see ya mum', and they just sort of expect that I'm going to come home at the end of the day."
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says police are "increasingly" facing threats "from those who are willing to use violence against police".
On Wednesday $45 million was poured into what the Government's calling the Tactical Response Model.
It will more than double the officer's tactical response training from 3.5 to 7.5 days per year; train 2000 more officers, like Roz, in frontline skills; include 200 more armed offender squad-level officers; and make tactical dog teams double-crewed.
But they'll look no different to other police.
"They will not be generally armed," says Coster, unlike the controversial Armed Response Team trial canned last year after they disproportionately apprehended Māori.
Police Minister Poto Williams couldn't guarantee this won't have the same statistics that the Armed Response Teams did.
"What I can guarantee is that this is the biggest investment in capability and training," she said.
While the Police Minister couldn't guarantee the same outcome, the Police Commissioner promised they won't cruise round doing bail checks and traffic stops.
"These staff won't be doing routine patrolling or routine policing duties like we saw with Armed Response Teams," he said.
Dylan Asafo, a lecturer in the faculty of law at the University of Auckland, researching the areas of racial justice, is glad to hear that.
"Relieved to hear that the Government is not re-introducing Armed Response Teams which were baseless and opportunistic," he told Newshub.
An August police survey overwhelmingly found that frontline officers want police to be generally armed.
The Government is firmly against arming police but with violent crime on the rise, something had to be done.
The Police Association says while the plan falls well short of what they wanted, they're willing to give this a chance - a compromise from both sides for now.
