Police stick with old road spikes after years of issues

Police officers who have been getting hurt putting out road spikes to stop fleeing drivers have had to wait seven years for something to be done about it.

At one stage, police looked at using old spikes as a "decoy", along with new spikes.

Officers have suffered serious cuts deploying the old manual spikes, and the police have promised to replace the spikes.

The project, which started in 2017, went through up to nine project managers and spent $1.1m, only to run into resource problems.

The new remote-control spikes are "overall" safer, according to tests that finally took place last year - although at least three officers still cut hands on the new ones.

But the new spikes needed more maintenance than the manual ones, as well as "asset management" and four hours of further training.

"None of the above are currently available in the existing structure," internal reports newly released to RNZ said.

Police have instead opted to stick with the old ones, adding longer ropes to them, and increasing the amount of training with the spikes.

Police across the Tasman have deployed new spikes - Queensland was keeping its old spikes under new operating policies, while giving remote-control ones to dedicated taskforces.

One report also noted that Counties Manukau police had shown interest in using the old spikes as a possible "decoy".

Police bought longer ropes -18m long instead of 12m - in mid-2023, but it took almost a year to fit them.

Longer ropes let officers get behind cover more easily, so drivers do not hit them.

The entire project was convoluted. A wrap-up report said: "The constant change in management has caused: a. Timelines to be extended, and b. Project risk to increase, and c. Additional cost.

"Eight or nine PMs across seven years of a project lifecycle is not a healthy project operating environment, and you would have to think that this would marginalise the effectiveness of the project."

It took more than two years just to get a tender sorted out.

The report contained a hint officers might yet get remote-control spikes: "A decision has been agreed to 'inactivate' and store the [test] RC [spikes] in Wellington until such time as a review of the supporting structure to roll them out can be agreed."

Police have had problems with the spikes for years, but funding constraints - such as on new IT projects - presented hurdles.

"The limited capability of current devices and access to other tactical devices results in staff being put / putting themselves in high-risk situations.

"The number of injuries and near miss incidents would suggest that this training is not meeting requirements."

Not using spikes at all would introduce greater risks.

When officers had problems with spikes, the IT system lacked a way for them to report it. There was also no asset management - police did not know how many sets of spikes they had - 2100 nationwide.

"Minor changes" in feedback forms were beyond IT's capacity.

This prevented last year's project making a solid recommendation.

"Challenges in... data capture and accuracy for analysis and reporting prevented the development of a quantitative baseline being established."

The Police Association said it was disappointed that newer and better tech had not been found.

"There are questions about whether this technology is stable enough for significant investment," said a report, noting other police forces were buying a few new spikes, to wait as the technology evolved.

Counties Manukau officers had tested a lightweight version of a remote-control spike.

But even this was quite hard to handle and had to have a new gas canister inserted every time it was used.

"Staff felt that once they had set up at their first location, they wouldn't be able to move to a second location easily as is often needed during fleeing driver events."

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