Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The police watchdog says the actions of an officer who broke a man's arm while arresting him in South Auckland were justified.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority said the officer fractured the man's arm while putting him in handcuffs.
On the day the incident happened, 10 December last year, police had chased two men who were suspected of robbing a taxi driver at gunpoint in Māngere.
The pair fled in a stolen car and crashed, then hid in the roof of a nearby house.
The Armed Offenders Squad confronted them and asked them to surrender.
Police said the pair did not respond at first, but one eventually complied and came down the ladder.
Officers took the man to a nearby bedroom and restrained him.
One of the officers fractured the man's arm while trying to put him in handcuffs, but said it was unintentional.
"When interviewed by us, Officer A stated that he could not recall specific details of the incident.
"He did recall Mr X was struggling and preventing his arm from being freed to be handcuffed. Officer A recalls hearing a 'popping sound' and Mr X exclaiming his right arm was broken," the IPCA report said.
The officer claimed the man was resisting arrest and had his arms underneath his body.
The man was taken to hospital for treatment.
The IPCA said the man who suffered the arm injury had refused to engage with its representatives during an investigation of the incident, apart from a brief telephone call.
Without any opposing evidence, the authority concluded that the officer used justifiable force.
Police acknowledged the IPCA's findings.
