Mum says racial profiling led to 11-year-old twins' unfair arrest

A day after the early findings of an investigation into police bias were released, another allegation of racial profiling by officers has emerged.

Masterton mum Liz Hing says her 11-year-old twins were unfairly targeted by police earlier this year when they were wrongly arrested.

It's not the first time police have arrested a young person from the same family for a crime they did not commit.

The two boys were with their cousin when officers approached them near the town centre, on Cole Street, Masterton.

A member of the public reported seeing a car nearby with its windows down, engine running and ignition-barrel pulled out.

"[Police] said to them, 'come with us, get in the car, you're under arrest', and the boys said, 'what for?', and they said, 'you stole that car,'" said Hing.

The children denied any involvement, but were arrested for unlawfully interfering with the vehicle.

"They've never driven a car, they have never turned on an ignition, they've only sat as a passenger in a vehicle and played with toy cars," Hing said.

"I think they were probably just trying to wrap their heads around how this had happened to them."

READ MORE: Review suggests police more likely to harm non-Pākehā

Police told 1News the decision to arrest was made because witnesses claimed they had seen three Māori boys with black clothing inside the vehicle and tampering with other cars in the area.

But upon further questioning, the witnesses could no longer verify what they saw.

"People do expect police to respond to situations and requests from the public. The difficulty is, everyone sees those situations from their own lens and we need to try bring that together," said Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.

"Those officers were attending in response to an emergency call, information that a stolen vehicle had been dumped. There was an illustration of youths, which was reasonably specific, and then they located some young people.

"They took them to station, contacted parents and in end were released."

But the parents were never present during the entire process.

"[The children] were confused, they were scared, because they knew they hadn't done anything," said Hing.

In 2019, Hing's then 16-year-old son was also wrongfully arrested outside his high school after being mistaken for a suspect in a burglary.

Cellphone footage taken of the arrest shows at least three police officers at the scene, including a dog handler.

A review into the arrest by the Independent Police Conduct Authority found multiple failings by police, including driving the teenager home in handcuffs despite knowing he was innocent.

"That had a huge impact on our whānau and our community, including my twin boys growing up knowing that," said Hing.

"One of the twins saw a police car go past last week while we were at Burger King and he turned around and he did the middle finger. I said to him, 'no baby, don't do that', and he said, 'but why not mum, after what they did to us?'."

On Thursday police released two reports from its ongoing investigation into bias, one of which found non-Pākehā seemed more likely to be harmed by police.

Emilie Rakete, a spokesperson for People Against Prisons Aotearoa, said the findings were damning.

"The research internationally shows that police forces across the world discriminate against ethnic minorities. The research also finds that in this country the police structurally discriminate against Māori people, and that this is due to the legacy of colonisation and imperialism that has left Māori a dispossessed and immiserated population."

She said structural social change is needed and that was something police had never been able to deliver.

"The trend is that the police focus on Māori communities, they focus on Māori people, it's Māori youth who are being photographed, it's Māori communities which are subjected to the armed police patrol trial in 2018.

"In every area it is Māori people who are being put under the microscope and that shapes the entire national conversation about crime because it's police attention that creates crime trends."

Hing simply wants her children to feel safe around police, and to no longer feel as though they have a target on their backs.

"Don't paint everybody with the same brush and have preconceived ideas when you're doing your policing."