Tauranga police are happy with how Boobs on Bikes proceeded and made no arrests during it.

About 3000 people gathered to watch the event as it travelled through town, along The Strand and Devonport Road.

See video interview below with Boobs on Bikes organiser Steve Crow and footage of police controlling protestors during the event.

Acting Area Commander Rob Glencross says overall the crowd was well-behaved and mostly cooperative when police requested people to move away from road edges.

Rob says there were two groups of protestors who attempted to stop the parade.

'The first group of protestors attempted to chain themselves across a pedestrian crossing, while a second group used the pedestrian crossing to protest with placards.

'The police presence at the event was to ensure public safety and maintain public order.

'Both protest actions compromised this, so we were forced to take appropriate action, removing the protesters from the area to allow the road to reopen.”
Rob says police respect the right of people to express their views.

'But when it compromises the safety of protesters or other members of the public, and disrupts normal traffic as it did in this case, we will take action.”

He says the location of the protest was a two-way road with protesters blocking both the parade and normal traffic attempting to travel in the opposite direction.

'The parade organiser was warned about the behaviour of one of the parade participants who was doing tyre burnouts on a dirt motorbike secured to a trailer.

'Even though the bike wasn't in contact with the road, this is still an offence.

'The organisers were warned, and if it happens again they will be issued with an infringement notice.”

Rob says part of the police operation included officers proactively approaching families with young children and elderly people prior to the event to make them aware of the parade and the nature of its content.

'There were some people who had deliberately chosen to bring their families to the event, both those in support of and against it, but we felt it was important to make others aware of it.”