Why would you allow the NZ Police mass surveillance powers over children?

New Zealand’s proposed expansion of police surveillance powers, including the ability to record and gather intelligence in public spaces, is raising serious concerns about privacy rights, oversight and the protection of children.

Dear Kiwis

Why are you such gullible authority worshipping goons for the bloody Police?

New Police Powers and the Surveillance Debate

Bill to give police new powers to move and detain introduced to Parliament

• A new bill would give police new powers but just how far it goes will now be fought over in select committee.
• The Privacy Commissioner says it sets the bar too low, but a Justice Ministry push for more safeguards was rejected.
• A criminal procedure expert warns it leaves so much up to police discretion it will likely land them in lots of court challenges.
• The hurry around the bill led to limited consultation with the public, Māori and over impacts on children.

A big step towards mass surveillance or restoring common sense powers to police to collect evidence and fight crime?

A bill just introduced to Parliament delivers new powers to police to move or detain someone, but just how far it goes depends who you listen to.

Alarm and reassurance were both in play when Mark Mitchell tabled the Policing Amendment Bill at its first reading before a nearly empty Parliament on Tuesday evening.

“I want to be very clear that this bill will not provide additional powers to police that could be construed as enabling mechanisms for mass surveillance of the New Zealand public,” the Police Minister told the House.

The bill allowed for police to record short live videos in public if they judged that was justified.

RNZ

Concerns Over Expanding Police Authority

Jesus wept, so much to unpack here.

Firstly, I love how the cops are sneaking this into the move on powers.

The move on powers are despicable enough, but to sneak in mass surveillance under it is just so on brand for the National Party.

Look.

I appreciate I have a long and complex history with the cops and that I really don’t like them.

When it comes to the pigs, I’m Jewish and Muslim.

They have had me under surveillance since University days and they attempted to frame me as the hacker Rawshark in a case I took to the Human Rights Tribunal and won.

I’ve met 1 cop in my entire life I liked and trusted, the rest are bulked up Muscle Mary’s who wake up each day with a dark gleam in their eye and a ‘respect my authority’ mentality.

Drs, Nurses, Teachers, Ambulance staff, Firefighters – these are all heroes.

Cops are not.

The NZ Cops grew out of the Mounted Constabulary who were a thug force that beat the Christ out of Māori when white settlers got sacred of things that went bump in the night in our early foundation as a country.

Little has changed.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m not a ‘abolish all Police’ person.

I just believe that the cops  require firm oversight and checks and balances to the power they have because they often abuse it!

We are a democracy, not a Police State and that is what this entire fiasco of a bill should be about.

Protection from the police abusing their power!

The Return of Police Intelligence Gathering Practices

The Police are sliding in the legal cover to record people on the street because what none of us realised was how important their off book private surveillance of children network meant to the cops…

The bill in a preamble said two events “have together narrowed the law” so that police now had less power to photograph or record people in public than a regular person.

One was official inquiries sparked by RNZ in 2020 exposing how officers for years had casually snapped tens of thousands of people, mostly Māori teenagers.

Ruled illegal, the practices were curtailed – albeit reluctantly and soon after police won bipartisan political support to change the law amid a rise in ramraids on shops.

That change had taken till now, but not before a Supreme Court ruling last year further narrowed what officers could do, according to the bill.

…the reason they were caught taking photos of young Māori kids was because that was an important street intelligence network for them.

They would create vast networks of contacts that they could then tap when they wanted to investigate issues.

They are sliding in the legal right to video because they were caught out doing this illegally in 2020 and want the powers back.

Why Children Need Stronger Legal Protections

Now.

I think no adult ever should talk to the NZ Police without a lawyer to protect their legal rights. So, you can imagine my position about cops interviewing children!

Look.

If the NZ Police wish to interview a teenager they can do it legally! They have to get a support person in there, a lawyer and they have to alert the parents.

Kids need more legal protections from the cops, not less!

If the NZ Police wish to interview children, teenagers or adults, there are legal mechanisms built to protect the citizens rights, what the cops are trying to do here is re-establish their street intelligence networks minus any legal protection to whomever they are filming.

Why would you give the bloody cops that level of unchecked power?!?

WHY???

Privacy Concerns and Legal Warnings

The Privacy Commissioner was not convinced about the safeguards, saying the bill set a “low bar”.

“It permits collection of people’s information for ‘an intelligence purpose’ which is not defined and establishes a low bar for police to meet (the police employee collecting the information only has to ‘consider that the information will or may support the Police in performing a function’),” said Michael Webster in a statement.

The Justice Ministry meantime had recommended tailormade safeguards.

But that was “deemed unnecessary” because the bill was not displacing any privacy principles or the Commissioner’s powers, said the bill disclosure statement.

However, the ministry largely supported the bill and said it did not breach the Bill of Rights Act.

Webster’s office in 2021 made one of two investigations of police taking so many photos so casually.

The Privacy Act did not permit “baseless or indiscriminate collection”, he said, but now the bill sought to set up a broad authorising framework.

“Overly broad or insufficiently clear intelligence gathering powers will impact on the privacy rights of everyday New Zealand[ers] and has the potential for chilling effect on people’s civil and political rights.”

Civil Liberties and the Risk of a Police State

Honestly Kiwi, your acquiescence  to authority is truly sickening at times.

Why aren’t we talking about all cops being fitted with body cameras so that their interactions with us is always filmed?

Surely in situations where they start arresting homeless people we should be seeing that entire interaction, especially because so many homeless have mental health issues and the chances of extreme violence or killing by the cops is a real possibility.

Why are we only allowing them to be selectively filming?

This is about gaining mass surveillance powers to gather intelligence without any of the checks and balances a Police force in the modern age requires.

Again.

If the cops believe a teenager has been involved in a crime, there are a whole bunch of processes WITH legal protections available to them, but that’s not what they want here.

What they want is their powers back without legal checks and balances so that they can interview kids on the street without any protections for the kids they are interviewing!

This is about intelligence gathering on the general population, and we don’t allow spying on the general population!

Again.

Why aren’t we talking about body cameras to ensure the interaction between cop and citizen is legal and safe?

Why are we only talking about giving them the selective ability to interview and record details for their intelligence purposes?

I love you Kiwi, but sometimes your desire to bend over for the Police and just hand your rights away is gasp inducing.

This is a democracy, not a bloody police state!

At its core, this debate is not about policing efficiency — it is about the limits of state power. In a democracy, surveillance and intelligence gathering must always be balanced with rights, protections and accountability, especially when children are involved.