Police Minister Chris Hipkins is facing fierce criticism over his suggestion the government may change the law to allow officers to keep taking photographs of adults and children for looking out of place or suspicious.
Hipkins told the annual Police Association conference yesterday the pendulum had swung too far in favour of privacy over surveillance.
His comments follow a major joint investigation by the Independent Police Conduct Authority and the Privacy Commission, which found officers had developed a widespread practice of routinely taking photographs of people in public for later identification, with little cause.
Hipkins said photography was an essential part of intelligence gathering.
"I am concerned that the report, if left unchallenged, will significantly restrain the police's ability to do their jobs."
The minister is still waiting for official advice. But he said change would likely be needed to make, what was condemned by the report, legal.
"I wouldn't take off the table the potential for Parliament to take further action to support the police to do their job."
Hipkins declined to be interviewed by Morning Report today.
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman said police did not need the power to take or keep peoples' information when there was no suspicion of offending.
She accused Hipkins of cowering to pressure from opposition parties.
"This is the kind of thing we might expect from a National Party police minister or the likes of David Seymour. Just knee-jerk reaction law-making that doesn't make anybody more safe."
Te Pati Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi questioned what the government was trying to achieve.
"Are we headed towards a granny state, a mummy state-type government? Where the state now has total control over what happens with our rangatahi Māori, who are the predominant group who has been identified, photographed illegally without consent."
National police spokesperson Mark Mitchell said his party was open to supporting a law change.
"If the police are acting illegally, then we're open to making sure that they're actually acting legally. If that means legislation being passed then we're very open to having a look at that."
If the government decided to press ahead with changing the law, Barrister Marie Taylor-Cyphers said it must first clearly explain what doing so would achieve.
"If they're saying 'look, we can't police properly without this information', well let's see what we'd predict to change. Would we see a drop in youth burglaries, for example? Would we see more people in court? Would we see a drop in crime?"
Police Association president Chris Cahill said officers were currently unable to respond to hundreds of crimes because the offenders were identified by the use of voluntary fingerprints.
Hipkins said if police were unable to photograph adults and children, it would take longer to identify offenders.
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster is not backing away from the highly critical report.
In statement, Webster said he welcomed scrutiny of the legislation.
RNZ
