On 15 and 16 October 2007, the New Zealand Police conducted a series of armed raids in response to alleged paramilitary training camps in the Urewera mountain range near the town of Ruatoki. About 300 police, including members of the Armed Offenders Squad and Special Tactics Group, were involved in the raids, which involved the execution of search warrants at various addresses throughout New Zealand, and the establishment of roadblocks at Ruatoki and Tāneatua. The police seized four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition and arrested eighteen people. According to police, the raids were a culmination of more than a year of surveillance that uncovered and monitored the training camps.
The police were investigating potential breaches of the Terrorism Suppression Act. On 8 November 2007 the Solicitor-General, David Collins, declined to press charges against any persons under that legislation. Collins later described the legislation as "incoherent and unworkable", and said it was almost impossible to apply to domestic terrorism in New Zealand as it was too complex. According to then Prime Minister Helen Clark, one of the reasons police tried to lay charges under anti-terror legislation was because they could not use telephone interception evidence in prosecutions under the Arms Act.
The raids were highly controversial and their legitimacy was debated by politicians, the media and the public. Hundreds of people participated in protests across New Zealand in the weeks following the raids. Of the eighteen people arrested, just four came to trial in February and March 2012, including Ngāi Tūhoe activist Tāme Iti. The defendants were found guilty on firearms charges. On the more serious charges of belonging to an organised criminal group, the jury was unable to agree. In March 2012, the cost to the taxpayer of the criminal proceedings, including legal aid and prosecution costs, was estimated to be well over 6 million. The cost of the surveillance and the subsequent raids had previously been estimated to be over 8 million.
In May 2013, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) published a report of its findings and recommendations following the investigation of complaints by individuals and organisations about police actions during the raids, particularly relating to road blocks and the execution of search warrants. The IPCA concluded that although the planning and preparation for the execution of search warrants was largely in accordance with policy, the planning and preparation for the establishment of road blocks in Ruatoki and Tāneatua was "deficient" and a number of aspects of the police raids were "contrary to law and unreasonable". The police spokesman for the Labour Party, which had been in government at the time of the raids, acknowledged that innocent people had been "unnecessarily frightened and intimidated". In 2014 the Police Commissioner formally apologised to the Ruatoki community and Ngāi Tūhoe for police actions during the raids.
Background Historical and cultural context
Ngāi Tūhoe had long-held grievances against the Crown, particularly over land seizures beginning in the late nineteenth century. The traditional land of Ngāi Tūhoe is Te Urewera in the eastern North Island, a steep, heavily forested area which includes Lake Waikaremoana. Historian James Belich has described the Urewera as one of the last zones of Māori autonomy, and the scene of the last armed Māori resistance: the 1916 arrest at Maungapohatu of Rua Kenana, a claimed prophet who sought to remove the Tūhoe people from the influence of Pākehā (New Zealand Europeans).
At the time of the raids in October 2007, the Waitangi Tribunal was continuing to consider claims regarding land and self-government within the tribal boundaries, and the words "confiscation line" were painted on the road to mark the geographical boundary between land confiscated by the Crown in the 1860s and land that remained with the Tūhoe people. In 2013 the IPCA found that the police failed to properly take into account this historical and cultural context when planning the operation, and that this failure was unreasonable.
Operation Eight In December 2005, two hunters in the remote Urewera ranges came across a camp where they found armed men, some wearing balaclavas, who appeared to be training. They reported what they had seen to the police, and the camps were put under surveillance. This led to police investigating a group of people in the Urewera area for over 18 months, some of whom had criminal records for assault and firearms offences and others who were known political activists. The investigations were termed "Operation Eight".
One of the people under investigation was Ngāi Tūhoe activist Tāme Iti, who had grown up and lived much of his life in Ruatoki, and who was one of New Zealand's best-known and most controversial activists. In 2005, acting in protest against Crown treatment of Tūhoe, Iti had shot a firearm at an Australian flag (in substitute for a New Zealand flag) during a Waitangi Tribunal hearing at Tauarau Marae. Although Iti was convicted of firearms offences, his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in April 2007, on the basis that there was insufficient evidence "that property was endangered or that any person was endangered, annoyed, or frightened".
During the course of Operation Eight, police lawfully obtained text messages suggesting that paramilitary training camps were being run in remote forest locations in the Urewera mountain ranges. Police further intercepted private communications and gained information they claimed suggested that serious violent offences were about to be committed. The police also obtained covert surveillance footage of the alleged training camps (later held by the Supreme Court to have been improperly obtained in the case Hamed v R). The police's evidence identified that six training camps were held between November 2006 and September 2007, with over 60 people having either been invited to attend or attending at least one camp. The camps appeared to involve the use of weapons, explosives and Molotov cocktails, ambush exercises, patrolling drills and the practice of interrogation techniques. Some evidence also suggested that the group's intention was to form "an independent Tūhoe nation within the Urewera area".
Termination of Operation Eight The police decided to terminate Operation Eight in October 2007, after legal advice that the evidence obtained could support charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act. The plan was to execute a number of search warrants at 41 addresses (relating to 37 individuals), one business address and eight vehicles, to make a number of arrests and to interview people who had knowledge of or involvement in the alleged training camps. In the application for search warrants police said they believed that the group intended to take control of an area of land in the Urewera area by use of military style semiautomatic firearms and Molotov cocktails. The police were later criticised by the IPCA for not preparing a more structured and detailed warrant application, and for not undertaking a formal documented review and approval process in respect of the final application. The cost of the surveillance and the subsequent raids was estimated to be over 8 million.
The Special Tactics Group, made up of full-time police officers trained to provide tactical response to high risk incidents, were involved in developing a tactical plan for the raids, and in particular the execution of multiple high risk search warrants. They considered and analysed threats posed at the addresses of the principal targets, and identified certain addresses and targets which would require assistance from the Armed Offenders Squad, a unit specially trained to respond to incidents involving firearms or other weapons. The tactical plan also recommended that a roadblock be put in place in Ruatoki during the raids. Police said that this was because of the need to search remote camp locations, intelligence suggesting an unknown local group in the area posed a threat to police, and the possibility of local sympathisers and supporters. The plan recommended that the Armed Offenders Squad stop and search vehicles leaving the area for unlawful weapons, and prevent any vehicles coming into the area until it was safe to do so.
Urewera raids On 15 October 2007 the police executed search warrants at three addresses in Ruatoki, and searched the area where the training camps were taking place. Only one man was arrested in Ruatoki.
Police questioning of locals Police maintained a strong presence in Ruatoki in the days following the initial raids and continued to question locals. Locals were advised that police had been investigating an armed group whose actions were believed to be unlawful, and who had been training in the Ruatoki area. They were asked a number of questions including whether they had knowledge of the training and what the extent of their knowledge was. The majority of community members were unable to provide any relevant information. The police later sought to frame these interviews as part of their community engagement and recovery efforts, but were criticised by the IPCA for doing so, on the basis that these interviews were evidence gathering and not about improving community relationships.
Roadblocks Although the tactical plan for the operation only required one roadblock, on the day two separate roadblocks were established before 6:00 a.m: one at Ruatoki, and one to the north at Tāneatua. Eight members of the Armed Offenders Squad staffed the Ruatoki roadblock, and searched and questioned everyone who passed through. The Tāneatua roadblock was staffed by uniformed officers who effectively closed the road to Ruatoki and prevented any cars from passing through. The roadblocks were a source of controversy, with complaints later being made about the insensitive location of the roadblock on the "confiscation line", the nature of the details requested, photographing of drivers and occupiers without consent, the use of armed and uniformed members of the Armed Offenders Squad, inconsistent information provided by police, and the disproportionate nature of the roadblocks. The roadblocks were lifted for a ten-minute period at 11:00 a.m, but subsequently reinstated until the afternoon.
The IPCA later found that there was no lawful basis for establishing either roadblock; there was no evidence of a threat from those being searched, and any possibility of an unknown local group of sympathisers was "highly speculative and devoid of any real evidence". The police failed to adequately plan for the likely traffic volumes or assess the impact that the Ruatoki roadblock would have on the community, or to plan at all for the Tāneatua roadblock. The police also had no legal grounds for stopping and searching all vehicles at the Ruatoki roadblock, for obtaining details of the vehicle occupants or for taking photographs of occupants. It was unreasonable for police to fail to consider the likely effect on the community that would be caused by Armed Offenders Squad wearing full "black role" (a balaclava, body armour, flame retardant overalls, boots, and an equipment vest).
School bus stop and search After reports on the day that a bus full of children from a kōhanga reo (Māori language preschool) was stopped and searched, police superintendent Wally Haumaha said these reports were wrong. However, a bus driver told a protest four days after the raid: "The police did hop on our bus and they did search our bus ... they always held their rifles." The organiser of the protest called on the government to acknowledge the incident and do something for the children affected by it. Speaking on Radio New Zealand she asked "I'd like to ask that question why? [was there nothing being done] is it because we're from Ruatoki? Is it because the majority of children are Māori out here?"