Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Earlier this week, RNZ revealed police are approaching innocent young people, photographing them, collecting their personal details and sending it all to a national database called National Intelligence Application (NIA).
Gisborne mother Bronwyn Williams said her son was photographed by police late one night while walking home from a basketball court with his friends.
She did not know why his photograph was taken, but suspected police would use the information if he was ever caught offending in the future. This is a form of racism, they re racially profiling our kids, she said. The message is, we don t trust you. You re gonna f k up, and when you f k up, we already have your information and we re gonna get you .
Two young boys, 14 and 15, were alone when it happened to them.
They were standing outside Cash Converters on Whanganui s main street, waiting for their koro to finish looking in the store, when two policemen caught their eye. Before long, the officers were standing at their feet. Where s the bag of money you stole, one officer asked, nearly shouting.
The boys were surprised. And they were confused. They denied knowing anything about the stolen money, but that did not convince the men in uniform. Strangers driving past gawked out their windows as the officers explained they met the description of offenders they were looking for.