Research into New Zealand policing finds systemic racial bias News
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Research into New Zealand policing finds systemic racial bias

A seminal report into systemic bias in New Zealand’s policing released on Wednesday found that Māori are disproportionately stopped, subject to force and prosecuted by law enforcement. Phase one of the Understanding Policing Delivery (UPD) research programme sets 40 recommendations to improve fairness and equity for Māori (New Zealand’s Indigenous people) and other minority communities in policing practice.

Key findings of the report include that police were 11 percent more likely to prosecute Māori than NZ Europeans for the same offence, 54 percent of taser events were against people experiencing mental distress, and when photographing children, police concentrated on whether their actions were lawful instead of the effects on public trust and confidence.

Police have been asked by the independent panel to halt the use of ethnicity data in their decision-making until a high level of accuracy can be assured. The Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding constitutional document, featured in three interim recommendations designed to put into effect police values of commitment to Māori and the Treaty. The panel also recommended that police cut back on routinely responding to mental health crises and instead work towards a cross-agency response.

University of Auckland Criminologist and People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson Emmy Rākete contextualised the report within the extensive documentation of Māori overrepresentation in New Zealand’s criminal justice system:

Since Moana Jackson’s He Whaipaanga Hou report in 1987, the Crown has been acknowledging and apologising for the racism of its law enforcement agencies. … Māori don’t need more reports into police racism: we need social and economic justice and the rangatiratanga [power and authority; self-determination] promised to our ancestors.

UPD was conceived in 2020 to understand the extent to which bias affects New Zealand’s police force and inform policy development to address existing inequities in police operations, with work on the initial stage commencing in late 2022. Notably, the independent panel’s approach has not been to “find fault” but to analyse trends across current police data.

Phase two of the programme is due later this year and will focus on engagement with communities of interest identified in the report, such as Māori women who have experienced domestic violence and takatāpui, Māori who identify with diverse genders and sexualities.

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