“When is the best time to go for a run when you are Māori?”
That’s the question posed by Te Papaiōea Anglican Māori priest, Dr Steve Elers*, who in July was stopped on a morning run by Palmerston North police, after finishing his third masters paper the night before.
He recalls seeing police turn into a park. Thinking something bad was going down due to recent crimes there, he decided to turn around and go home.
Running the other way, he saw lights coming from behind him. When he turned around, he was surprised to see three armed police officers flashing their torch lights at him.
“[They were] demanding my name,” Elers said.
He took his headphones off to hear them properly and gave them his QID number, a series of digits given to identify present and past NZ Police employees.
He had one as an ex-senior Māori research insights advisor for the New Zealand Police.
“They completely changed their attitude and [they said] ‘oh yeah, that alright’, and they turned around to walk off.
“I was thinking to myself ‘Actually, you know what, it’s not all right because I’ve been stopped.”
Elers said he had been stopped by police about 20 times in his lifetime, when he had been driving, walking, running, or even sitting outside of a cafe.
‘Do Pākehā get stopped?’
This was when he decided to confront the officers, recording it on camera and asking why they stopped him.
The officer said Elers looked like someone they were looking for.
Elers didn’t believe that was the case but said: “It is what it is.
“What I experienced, it’s not good when you’ve been stopped, when you’re just going about your normal routine going for a jog in the morning.
“Do Pākehā get stopped by three armed police when they’re going for a jog in the morning?
“I’m an ordained Māori minister, I’ve got no criminal convictions, I’ve been a police officer, I’ve worked for New Zealand Police, I’ve got all these qualifications and if I’m being stopped just going for a jog, what about all our other whānau?”
After the run-in with the police, Elers used his connections to contact Police deputy chief executive iwi and community Pieri Munro and central district Māori responsiveness manager Clifford Brown about the incident.
He said they both agreed it was wrong. Elers was also asked by someone in the police national headquarters to use his video for police training.
‘Fulsome discussion’
Te Ao Māori News asked the New Zealand Police to confirm the events laid out by the priest.
The organisation didn’t confirm or deny what happened but it said police had talked to Elers about the incident.
“Members of Palmerston North Police met Mr Elers after receiving his letter outlining his experience, and had a fulsome discussion with him.
“If Mr Elers remains unsatisfied with the outcome, those members are happy to meet with him again at his request,” a police spokesperson said.
Elers has not received an apology for the incident.
As an ex-police officer in Western Australia, Elers has experience in the field. He said in such a situation he would’ve taken a calmer approach, rather than being aggressive when trying to identify someone.
“Instead of saying ‘what’s your name, what’s your name, tell us your name now’, I would have said ‘Excuse me, sir. Look, we’ve just had a police officer come into the station and he said you look like this guy on the wanted list. I’m so sorry to bother you while you’re out doing your morning run but can I just have your name, then I can put down that I’ve spoken to you and I’m really sorry about this’,” Elers told Te Ao Māori News.
He agreed that an aggressive demand would get an aggressive response.
“I was trying to control myself.
“I was like ‘calm down, calm down’ and I could imagine a lot of my whānau losing it, going ‘Well I’m not giving you my name, you can get lost’. So yeah, it’s all in the approach.”
Elers contacted Te Ao Māori News after reading the article on the disparities in how Police interact with Māori, other ethnic communities and disabled people.
“I should probably say, by and large our police do a good job but there is this issue of how our Māori people are spoken to [and] how we’re stopped.
“I suppose [we have to] figure out how we are going to resolve these and I’m not so sure the answers are going to lie with police national headquarters.
“I think the answers lies with our own people, you know, with Māori communities rather than the bureaucrats,” Elers said.
*I te taha o tōna whaea: Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Matakore
I te taha o tōna pāpā: Ngāti Kahungunu me Rangitāne ki Wairarapa, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Hikairo ki Kāwhia