Dunedin police booze operation labelled ‘creepy’
Undercover police officers drank in Dunedin bars as part of an operation targeting liquor licensing offences.While police said the inaugural operation was a success — with most bars found compliant — the Hospitality Association slammed the move as “creepy”.
Two Central Otago-based police officers — in their mid-20s — visited city bars on Saturday night to check compliance with the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act.
Alcohol harm prevention officer Sergeant Ian Paulin said the undercover officers kept in touch with officers at the Dunedin Police Station via their smartphones.
“If they come across anything that needed our attention, then we would charge out,” he said.
Mr Paulin, another uniformed officer, a Dunedin licensing inspector and a Public Health South official would then go to the bar, with the undercover “observers able to guide us to the person”, via text.
The undercover officers visited six bars in total, with some bars visited twice.
He confirmed those officers were allowed to drink while on duty.
This is a sinister and creepy extension of Police powers into the public sphere under the pretence of alcohol regulation. These cops are spies, undercover spies, sitting around in public, drinking and looking for people to spy on.
When this was originally mooted I wrote, this has all the ingredients for gross abuses of power at a time when the NZ Police Force have hardly shown themselves to be well equipped to handle such enormous discretion. Entrapment, abuse of power, unwelcome sexual advances all mixed within an alpha male Police Culture of denial that sees loyalty first and the law second is about as advisable as NZ launching a solitary re-invasion of Iraq.
Open ended Police spying in pubs is not a solution to alcohol related crime, if you want to deal with that, put far stronger restrictions on liquor licensing and enforce those rules, this is about surveillance and intelligence gathering at a time when the Police have a vast expansion of powers and questionable checks and balances put in place to control those powers.
We should resist Police being able to spy on us in public at every opportunity until the Police can explain why it’s necessary.
But it’s for our safety!
How many times have you heard that one.
I’m a bit lost on this action, what exactly are they trying to stop? If its alcohol feed violence then the answer is obvious, curb access. If it’s underage drinking, curb access.
So I can potentially expect to be approached by officers if a half cut junior cop is out on duty and thinks I may be doing something else apart from having a beer with some mates?
Well, if they had a listen to some of the discussions we have I’d probably locked up for proposing revolution.
Have the police never worked behind a bar and heard some of the crap people come out with when drunk and hanging out with friends? I have.
I don’t get what’s so creepy about it?
Police and Public Health do undercover stuff all the time to monitor sale and supply of alcohol act compliance.
Stronger controls are required to reduce alcohol related harm, and in the meantime, monitoring compliance is one of the few tools they have.
Surely surveillance and information gathering is important for monitoring compliance?
It is not surprising this activity has started in Dunedin. The current district commander, Andrew Coster, is famously anti-alcohol. He was formerly from Auckland and those who dealt with him knew of his very religious leanings which his pretty fringe views on alcohol are based.
Comments are closed.