The government is amending the Crimes Act to in a bid to tackle an increase in shoplifting and retail crime. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
Under an amended law, citizens will have the power to detain criminals at any time, for any crime. But one law professor says retail workers aren't trained as police - and the fallout could be serious.
The government will amend the Crimes Act to give all New Zealanders greater ability to detain people stealing from retail stores, in a bid to tackle an increase in shoplifting and retail crime.
But a top Auckland law professor tells The Detail he is not convinced by the change in legislation, highlighting the risks associated with untrained individuals attempting to detain offenders.
"It's empowering people to do things without any safety net," Professor Mark Henaghan said. "It's like walking a tight rope without a safety net and I don't think you and I would try that, even if we were drunk."
The current legislation does not protect retailers or security guards from liability if they try to detain an offender during the day and if the stolen goods are worth less than $1000.
Under the new law, citizens will be able to intervene to stop any Crimes Act offence at any time of the day, provided they contact the police promptly and follow their instructions. The law says that reasonable force, including restraints, can be used when making an arrest.
But critics have been hot on what counts as reasonable force when making a citizen's arrest. The government says this will be made clear, but Professor Henaghan told The Detail it always depended on the circumstances.
"It depends very much on the degree of force being applied to you. If someone is standing mildly and agreeing with your detention, you can't physically grab them and push them around or shake them, but if someone is attacking you, quite physically, you can use the same degree of force to protect yourself. So, it depends on the force being applied to you... any excess is assault."
He warns one punch can kill.
"When people are enraged, they lose their mind, they are dangerous, it's like a wild animal... unless you are trained, they only have to hit you in the wrong place, one blow can kill you."
He is worried about an increase in vigilante behaviour and racial profiling - "those are the risks we run, some people are targeted more than others, that's already a problem''.
He said the government should "go back and think about this very deeply" because getting the balance right between empowering citizens and ensuring public safety was crucial.
"It has so many fishhooks in it, I think it's been thought through for the wrong reasons," Professor Henaghan said. "I think it was a promotion... after an increase in retail crime, I think there was a think tank that got together and said 'this is the answer, let's get all these burly people, these great hulks in retail and people will be too terrified to take anything'... I think its intention was wrongly aimed, it's not [retail workers'] job.
"The police have to take quite severe training in that - even security guards don't really train in that properly; they don't really have the authority either.
"So, I think it's had a bad reaction because it hasn't been thought through."
Henaghan also said that allowing for citizen's arrests could make violence worse, because criminals may start to carry weapons.
"People might say 'well if they think they're going to stop us, we'll be ready for it'.
"I just don't think we want a society where people feel they have to do that. We'll get like America where people want to have guns on them to protect themselves, and that leads to all sorts of deaths and crazy killings."
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