Chris Hipkins meets with Dairy Owners' Group over retail crime. Video / NZ Herald
Police Minister Chris Hipkins has pushed back at concerns from the Privacy Commissioner that new search powers in a bill targeting gangs lacks sufficient evidence and has potential for “disproportionate use”.
The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill includes a new warrant power to search for and seize weapons during a gang conflict.
Places and vehicles able to be searched included those that the judge had “reasonable grounds to suspect are owned, occupied, or used by 1 or more gang members of a gang specified in the warrant”.
Deputy Privacy Commissioner Liz MacPherson told a select committee the “precedent-setting design” of the search powers raised several concerns.
“We have not yet seen evidence that proposed new warrant power is an effective measure to address gang harm by removing weapons from gang conflicts.
“The proposed new warrant power represents a notable departure from the established approach to the use of search powers that require police to have reasonable grounds to suspect a criminal act is occurring or will occur.
“Although it is implicit that the search is for unlawful weapons, this reasonable suspicion standard regarding offending should not be bypassed without careful consideration of the potential risks, particularly the potential for disproportionate use.”
Hipkins said he accepted the concerns but disagreed with the commissioner’s submission.
“It is one of the things that the Government weighed up when we decided to bring that bill before the House,
“We want to give police more ability to intervene before something happens, rather than allowing police to respond after the fact.”
MacPherson cited evidence from the United Kingdom following the evaluation of stop and search powers afforded to police that reportedly showed disproportionate use on youth and minorities, and how the majority of searches didn’t lead to the discovery of weapons.
MacPherson also referenced known problems with information held on national gang members that could lead to warrants being carried out on innocent people.
“The introduction of these novel search powers may potentially impact on other current community interventions, intensify animosity towards the police and erode trust in the state.”
She confirmed the office of the Privacy Commissioner did not support the enactment of the new power but said if it was approved, the office should be consulted in order to provide “practical safeguards” and implement future reviews to establish its worth.
Hipkins also spoke to funding for businesses affected by a spike in ram raids.
Chris Hipkins met with small business owners in October. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He said so far about 80 businesses were “in the process”. Many had done minor work including fog cannons and sound bars but more substantial work including bollards and roller doors would take longer.
Regarding gang activity, he said now was a “quieter patch” but he did not want to “declare victory too early”.
