19 September 2011

Urgent surveillance law change welcomed

The Police Association today welcomed Prime Minister John Key’s announcement that the Government will pass urgent law to authorise Police use of covert video surveillance.

Such surveillance had effectively been ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court’s judgment in relation to admissibility of evidence in the Operation Eight cases. The Supreme Court found that, because the existing law is silent on whether Police may use such surveillance, it must by default be considered illegal. This overturned the previous assumption that because it was not prohibited, such surveillance was permitted.

“When the judgment was released on Friday, we warned of the serious implications for policing of major crime including drug dealing and organised crime. Video surveillance is absolutely central to much of that sort of police work and has become as routine a tool as fingerprints and DNA in keeping up with increasingly sophisticated offending,” Police Association President Greg O’Connor said.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court had invited Parliament to amend the law if it wished to permit such surveillance and criticised it for not already having done so. The Association on Friday called for such an amendment to be made urgently.

“Once again, the law has failed to keep up with the criminals or technology. The Prime Minister is reported as saying today official advice is that up to 40 trials and 50 current operations were jeopardised by the Court’s new interpretation. That is a significant threat to policing of serious crime which justifies urgent action in the interests of public safety.

“We fully support the Government taking such action, and implore Parliament also to throw its support behind the legislation when it is introduced,” Mr O’Connor said.

ENDS

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