The police union says a trial of armed response teams is well overdue.
From the end of this month, armoured response teams in blue SUVs will patrol South Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury.
The six-month trial is in response to the growing number of callouts involving firearms.
Police association president Chris Cahill told Heather du Plessis-Allan they have been wanting this for the past decade.
"The introduction of this will make communities and police officers a lot safer."
Police have had growing concerns about the increasing number of incidents that police respond to that involve firearms, and that is understood to have contributed to the decision to trial armed response vehicles.
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