The minister for police is not ruling out a law change to support police in continuing to take photographs and fingerprints from young people.
Speaking at the annual police association conference this morning, minister Chris Hipkins said he would support police challenging a report which condemned the taking of fingerpint data and photographs from youths.
Hipkins said he "wouldn't take off the table the potential for Parliament to take further action to support the police".
The report in question, released by the Independent Police Conduct Authority and the Privacy Commissioner last month, found photos and fingerprints of five youth in Wairarapa were taken illegally.
It suggested police practices needed a drastic overhaul, but Hipkins said photography was an essential part of intelligence gathering.
"I think it will certainly slow down the identification of an increasing number of youth offenders," Hipkins said.
"And that's likely to have, that could have a really concerning effect, because it would lead to a greater sense of impunity amongst some of those young people."
Hipkins said much of this data was given voluntarily. "In many cases, in fact, they are consenting and their parents are consenting. And so you know, the issue here is, what real harm has been caused by this?"
"I understand the privacy principles in question here. But actually, there's a countervailing interest as well," he said.
President of the New Zealand Police Association Chris Cahill said the rule change had an immediate effect on victims of crime.
"Currently there [are] hundreds of crimes where the offenders have been identified by the use of voluntary fingerprints that [police] cannot act on.
"So those crimes are not being solved or resolved, because the inability of police now to use those voluntary fingerprints."
RNZ
