Personal reflections by the people who were there, on the policing responses to the Christchurch earthquake, and to the terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques, during the 2010s

 

As part of his Policing Friendship Tour, Policing Insight and PolicingTV Publisher Bernard Rix recently visited Christchurch in New Zealand. Whilst there, he spoke to a number of those who contributed to the policing response to two of the major policing incidents in Christchurch during the 2010s. 

 

Inspector Bryan Buck and Detective Inspector Greg Murton played key parts in the immediate response to, and the investigation of, the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch on Friday 15 March 2019. Fifty one people died as a result of this attack, with a further forty injured. The gunman was arrested after his vehicle was rammed by a police car as he was driving to a third mosque: he was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. 

 

Supt Corrie Parnell, now the District Commander in Wellington for New Zealand Police, played a key part in the police response to the major earthquake that occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time, killing 185 people from more than twenty countries. Additionally, around six and a half thousand people were treated for injuries sustained during the earthquake. New Zealand declared a national civil defence emergency following the earthquake, only the second time that the country had ever declared such an emergency. 

 

Bernard also visits the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, accompanied by New Zealand Police’s Trevor Dickinson-Mclachlan, who further reflects on the effect these two major incidents had on those in policing in Christchurch.