Balance is needed after a major policing investigation found officers have been routinely photographing members of the public unlawfully, a legal expert and an ex-officer say.
"What the Privacy Commissioner and importantly the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) found ... was that the police were doing things like recording and taking photographs either with or without consent of young folk because of just suspicious activity," privacy lawyer Kathryn Dalziel explained on Breakfast.
"It wasn't to investigate a particular crime, it was just simply that they thought they'd take a record of it.
"It's all sitting there, it's undocumented, it's not linked, it's not related to any particular offending, it's sort of 'oh, we'll collect this information and think of a purpose for it later', and that's not the way either the Privacy Act or the Policing Act works."
In response to the findings, Police Minister Chris Hipkins said in a statement to Breakfast he's "open to receiving any advice from the police once they have had an opportunity to consider the impact of the recommendations".
"Evidence gathering is a core part of the job police do. While there do need to be protections in place to protect privacy, there is a balance to be struck."
Yesterday, Hipkins said he "wouldn't take off the table the potential for Parliament to take further action to support the police", sparking debate and drawing strong criticism from the Greens and Te Pati Māori.
Experts respond
Lance Burdett was a police officer for 22 years who trained with police, corrections, FENZ, the military and the FBI.
"In my day it was Polaroid photographs," he said, explaining they were taken with consent and for detection after crimes occurred.
"So they've been around for a long time but now with digital, we've got to be very careful of such things around this operational creep, 'we'll grab it and then see what we can use it for'.
"You've got to balance, any tool that's used by police is invaluable to prevent and detect and to resolve crime, that's great, but then it has to be measured against people's rights.
"So, very happy for them to be able to do that, however it's got to be strictly within some guidelines."
Burdett said the subjects of photographs should be entitled to informed consent, knowing what the photographs would be used for.
READ MORE: Police set new rules after young Māori unlawfully photographed
Dalziel agreed, adding that there's a power disparity between police and young people.
"It's that idea of informed consent. So, does the young person know exactly the purposes, who will see it, where it's held, but really importantly - and this is under the Privacy Act - they've got to know that it's voluntary.
"And I don't think that's being communicated and that's certainly what the report found."
The pair agreed a balance needed to be struck in response to the findings.
Whānau complained young Māori had been targeted unfairly, as Te Aniwa Hurihanganui explains. (Source: 1News)
"It is a great tool, and it's a useful resource, but again it has to be balanced with people's rights and freedoms," Burdett said.
"Policing is a heck of a hard job, and any tools that we can give to police is invaluable for us, we all want to feel safe, but we also have to make sure that the people who are policing are being policed."
Dalziel said she appreciated the difficulty of policing, but "the other risk for the police is, if they get this wrong, they will not be able to secure a prosecution because defence counsel will point it out".
"So they may not be able to secure a conviction if they don't follow the correct procedures in the law that are there for a reason.
"The balance is all the checks and balances that sit within the Privacy Act.
"We need more information, more data, and it may well be that there is law change to allow more collection but making sure that it's done in a proper, measured, balanced way."
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