Detective Inspector Wallace Chalmers was fatally shot when called to the scene of a firearms incident on Bethells Road in Waitakere, Auckland in January 1963. Detective Sergeant Neville Wilson Power was also killed at the scene.
It was generally accepted up until the time of this sad event (which was followed by another police shooting less than a month later in Wellington) that New Zealand police were unarmed and generally attended the scene of reported crimes without firearms. Even when police were armed there was usually no special firearms training or expert officers available for such calls out, although armed criminals were not unknown and there had been earlier deaths involving firearms.
Known as Wally, Chalmers joined the New Zealand Police in December 1938 and served as a Constable in Newton, Wellington. He spent most of his career in the Criminal Investigation Branch. He was known to be a highly experienced and meticulous investigator. Chalmers was part of the team that searched for mass murderer Stanley Graham in 1941 and through out his career played a leading part in the investigation of several Auckland murders.
He spent two tours of duty overseas. One was as part of a party sent to Fiji in December of 1941 to deal with security measures during the construction of the war-time airport at Nandi. The second tour was in 1946 to Rarotonga with another police party sent to handle industrial disturbances.
In 1957 Chalmers received a Record of Merit for his work and in 1960, he was one of the top few selected investigators to be in a specially formed homicide squad. He was also known for his fine qualities of compassion, humility, and humanity. Chalmers dabbled in photography and orchid growing.
At the joint funeral for Chalmers and Power, the Auckland Police Highland Pipe Band, of which Chalmers was a founding member and Major in, led the processional from St David’s Presbyterian Church and also played a lament at the gravesite where an honour guard of 30 detectives and 30 uniformed officers farewelled them.
Chalmers is remembered by his wife, May, and their two children.
As a result of the Waitakere shootings an Armed Offenders Squad was established within the New Zealand Police and there was a general review of police tactics to be used during incidents where firearms were involved. The offender was tried and found to be criminally insane. Inspector Chalmers was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for bravery.
Wallace Chalmers
Died 1963
