Opinion

Left: a police officer at a memorial wall; below: Chris Cahill addresses the Police Federation of Australia federal council meeting in Canberra.

“There will always be something that could’ve been done differently or better,” Cahill says. “But I challenge anyone to find a response that would’ve been better anywhere in the world. It was all world class.” Some of the most tender moments Cahill saw were those that played out on the day after the shootings. Christchurch residents were clearly grateful for their police and came out to thank them in person, with either words or an embrace. Many brought food, some of it home-cooked, and handed it to officers on cordons. Others took food into Christchurch Central police station. In one exchange, Cahill saw an elderly woman take a chocolate bar from her handbag and hand it to a young cop on the street. “The outpouring of support for police was massive,” he recalls. “Just constantly people were coming up and saying: ‘Thank you. Thank you for what you’ve done. Thank you for what you’re doing.’ “And getting that public support, I think, was a real boost for them.” Also “really moving” to Cahill was the generous act of scene guards on a cordon outside one of the mosques. Civilians had been unable to lay flowers against a fence inside the cordon and so laid them on the side of the road. The scene guards collected all those flowers and tied them to the fence.

In Canberra for the Police Federation of Australia federal council meeting last September, Cahill thanked Australia for its hands-on support after the mosque killings. Australian tactical police were, at the time of the shootings, in New Zealand and involved in training with the NZ Special Tactics Group and other overseas specialists. “They’ve got expert training in triaging,” Cahill says. “So they were deployed, along with that team (STG), and were some of the first people to get to the mosque, and they used their skills to save lives. Without a doubt. “But, then, after that, within 24 hours, Australia had supplied experts around cybercrime, forensic examination, computers … to assist the investigation.” Cahill explained to the PFA federal council meeting that, while March 15, 2019 had been his proudest day, it had also been his darkest. “The whole thing gave you cause for pause,” he says. “It’s really hard to get your head around the size of the tragedy and the repercussions that flow from it. “I’d like to think that I won’t see a worse day in my time as Police Association president, or in my career as a police officer.” PJ