By Ofoi Taumoelau
Maori and Pacific Island youths are outraged over a bill that has been passed which allows police to keep details of people who weren’t convicted of crimes.
The Policing (Youth Identifying Particulars) Amendment Bill was passed in 2008, which meant police were not allowed to keep details that identified young people; such as finger prints, photos and any other form of identification, unless convicted of a crime.
However, in August, National and Labour made a deal to reverse this law, which means police have permission to retain personal identification of youth.
Young Maori and Pacific Islanders are statistically more likely to receive police attention; their details are more likely to end up in police files. Maori youth are detained more and that fraction of this is due to racial profiling.
Sinai Vaka’uta, the Team Leader of Fonuamalu, a Tongan Bilingual Unit, says the bill breaches basic human rights because it condemns innocent people.
“It is frightening because your fingerprint is your DNA and that’s an injustice policy for any country to uphold.”
The bill means the details of young people who have made mistakes but have not breached the conviction will be kept for future tracking.
Pacific island student Veisinia Ha’unga says our identification no longer feels personal because the police have access to it at all times.
“It feels like the Government is labelling us Maori and Pacific Island youth as future criminals because they feel the need to keep our identification.”
A teacher at Kia Aroha College who wishes to remain annonymous strongly believes that if they are not convicted of a crime their details should be removed in order to prevent them from further potential harassment.
Ofai Taumoelau is working with UNICEF as part of the 3Youth project, an upcoming section of the 3 News website focusing on social issues and written by young people.