New Zealand faces future of terror evacuations, shut-downs – security expert

While it turned out to be an “innocent misunderstanding”, terrorism security expert and former SAS soldier Chris Kumeroa says the evacuation was the “right call” considering the current security alert state around New Zealand.

“It shouldn’t be considered as a one-off,” he says.

“If the public see something that’s not quite right, it’s important for the agencies then to weigh in on whether or not it’s a credible threat.

“Then from there they’ll take a course of action: whether that’s to shut it down, evacuate or whatever.”

Homegrown says the decision to evacuate wasn’t taken lightly.

“We had spoken with police and looked at some different options, unfortunately those options didn’t pan out the way we wanted them to so we had to go with that option of evacuating but it worked,” Homegrown chief executive Andrew Tuck says.

But Kumeroa warns it won’t be the last evacuation to come; he says taking extra precautions is necessary in order to keep the public safe, and that we should expect to see more security – not only at concerts, but in airports too.

“As the alert state goes up, so do does the increase of security presence both from the state and private sector – so you’ll see that quite visible and an increase in security protocols,” Kumeroa says.

And while there’s no telling how long we can expect to see security remain at a high level, it’s likely it won’t be reducing any day soon.

Newshub.