Source: Radio New Zealand
(File photo) RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Police say they have not yet started investigating what technologies they might need to implement intelligence-gathering powers contained in a new bill that would give police new powers to move and detain.
They also said public consultation on the policing amendment bill would happen at the Justice select committee where it was sent after its first reading this week.
The bill delivered new powers to police to move or detain someone, but just how far it went would now be decided in select committee.
There was no public consultation on it until now, with a regulatory impact statement saying the time pressure had been to enact the changes as soon as possible after a Supreme Court ruling almost a year ago, “given the impact on daily policing activity”.
Two official inquiries and a Supreme Court ruling almost a year ago, challenged police’s understanding of how they could collect general intelligence and, the bill said, narrowed the law.
This came after police photographing people indiscriminately was ruled unlawful, and police storage of tens of thousands of images was exposed for the first time as so haphazard they still had not been able to locate them all.
Police missed a mid-2025 deadline to find a way to identify and delete all the photos.
Their updates to the Privacy Commissioner over several years showed that while they stopped the practice, and taking youths fingerprints unlawfully too, they failed to find or afford technology to destroy the pictures, or to flag them if they cropped up in a current investigation.
The tech gap was raised in the debate over the bill’s first reading this week by Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen.
A digital evidence management system had been presented as a solution, she said.
“We have a right to know how long those photographs or video recordings or sound recordings are being held for and where they are being stored,” Andersen said.
“It’s important to know that there is a system in place within police for this to be done responsibly, and it’s also important for us to know if this is funded, because we know… there’s been inadequate funding for the development and implementation of a digital evidence management system.
“Had they had that, police would have stored and identified photos and linked them to specific cases, which would have also meant [that] staff would have documented the lawful purpose for taking the photo.”
In mid-2024 a project to build such a system was put on hold for lack of money.
RNZ would seek an update from police.
Tim Anderson, Assistant police commissioner for iwi community and partnership said on Friday, “as this bill has only just begun going through the parliamentary process, police has not yet commenced work to [sic] investigating supporting technologies that may be required in preparation for implementation.”
Police began a push for a law change around general intelligence powers in 2022 soon after being taken to task in inquiries by the Privacy Commissioner and Independent Police Conduct Authority.
The government said the new bill sought to correct that and restore their powers but critics say it expands their powers without adequate safeguards.
The lack of consultation before the bill was introduced extended to Māori.
Police said on Friday they would continue to consider and give effect to their obligations to Māori and the Treaty “including ways in which any disproportionate impacts to Māori can be appropriately mitigated”.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
