New data obtained by the Sunday Star-Times once again shows that if you are brown in Aotearoa, you are far more likely to be subject to a police search without a warrant.
The use of warrantless searches provides a unique glimpse into interactions between police and the public. In certain situations, an officer can make a call to carry out a search without first obtaining a warrant from the courts, or without direct oversight from any other agency.
They are extraordinary powers giving police the ability to swerve around the fundamental human right of not being subject to unreasonable intrusion from the state.
In the past two years, Māori were 3.9 times more likely to be subject to a warrantless search compared to Pākehā, and Pasifika 1.6 times more likely.
The gap for Māori is almost exactly the same as it was two years ago when the Sunday Star-Times first investigated the use of this powerful tool of the state. For Pasifika, it’s worse (up from 1.2 times more likely in 2020).
Two years ago, Police Commiss.ioner Andrew Coster described the ethnic disparities in the figures as “appalling”.
He declined to be interviewed for this story but, in a statement, one of Coster’s deputies, Jevon McSkimming, says: “The unfortunate reality is that there continues to be significant over-representation of Māori and Pasifika people across the criminal justice system and police will continue to seek ways to address this”.
Information obtained by the Sunday Star-Times shows police have carried out 37,611 searches without a warrant since 2019.
Māori made up 33.5% of those, despite accounting for about 16% of the population. Pākehā represent 70% of New Zealand but only about 37% of searches.
For the police, McSkimming says they are trying to understand why the disparities exist, including through the Understanding Police Delivery programme. Other strategies, Te Huringa O Te Tai and O Le Taeao Fou, provide guidance to staff on how best to engage with Māori and Pasifika, including whānau/aiga and victims.
“The factors that lead to over-representation are complex and many of them relate to disadvantages upstream of police, such as social and economic factors, personal and community struggles relating to physical and mental wellbeing, substance abuse, gang membership and family harm,” McSkimming says.
Another thing which is evident in the latest data is the gaps.
In 2022, nearly a third of searches were missing their relevant ethnicity data – almost three times as many as in 2019.
Better data collection is something that is being sought in a Waitangi Tribunal claim brought by Timoti Te Moki, a final-year medical student who faced ongoing harassment by police in his youth.
“I’m seeking to make it law that all data including ethnicity is to be collected when engaging with or arresting youth,” says Te Moki.