Back in 2021, RNZ exposed the systematic police practice of coercing "voluntary" photographs from young Māori on the street, leading to a joint IPCA / Privacy Commission report exposing illegality, systematic racism, and widespread ignorance among police officers of the limits on their behaviour, and a formal compliance notice to force them to stop and delete it all (something they still haven't done). This was followed earlier this year with the Supreme Court's ruling in Tamiefuna v R, which upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal that the police photographing people in public places is a "search" in terms of the BORA (meaning any interference with a reasonable expectation of privacy), and was both unlawful and unreasonable. The police immediately started whining about how it would be impossible for them to do their jobs if they had to actually obey the law, and so predictably the regime ahs announced that they will legalise their lawless behaviour:
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said on Thursday police had been left uncertain about taking people's photos and recording their images in public places.They weren't "uncertain". It was crystal fucking clear that they could not, unless they had a warrant. As the Court of Appeal noted, "there is a reasonable expectation that a person’s photograph will not be deliberately taken and retained for identification purposes by police without a good law enforcement reason", and that seems entirely appropriate. But the police want to be able to spy on us without any restrictions whatsoever, and database us for life, in the absence of any criminal suspicion whatsoever. And that is the attitude of a fascist surveillance state, not the police force of a democratic state which respects privacy and human rights."Recent court decisions have created uncertainty around police's ability to record images in public places for lawful purposes," he said.
"The proposed amendments will reaffirm the prior common law position, making it clear that police can collect and use images in public spaces, and in places where police are lawfully present, for all lawful policing purposes.
"This includes intelligence gathering and crime prevention and other policing functions and associated activities."
Oh, also, the police will be given more powers to "temporarily close areas in response to antisocial behaviour or public safety risks" - which means a blank cheque to shut down protests. So more anti-democratic moves from the regime.
The good news is that "[l]egislation will now be drafted, and the changes will go through a legislative process in due course." Hopefully that process will take as long as possible, so it can be shitcanned by the next government. The regime's cuts to the overworked justice portflio won't help here, and I'd hope that public servants who care about human rights will ensure that it is fully and thoroughly and repeatedly reviewed for BORA compliance. After all, we wouldn't want the regime to get another embarrassing declaration of inconsistency, would we?
