Duncan Garner: Will citizens’ arrests deter retail thugs or will someone die?
Duncan Garner: You, me and the next guy or girl -- we’ll all have the powers to make a citizen’s arrest and detain alleged offenders if we suspect something isn’t right.
Shoplifting has become so common and brazen in New Zealand that, at times, it’s looked like out-of- control looting. People with full trolleys rushing past pointless and powerless security guards, swearing, throwing punches. Sadly, this is New Zealand today – and we could not have put up a weaker response than we have done.
The latest New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey shows a 12% increase in “theft and related offences” at retail premises between 2023 and 2024, the NZ Herald reported, and retailers lose billions each year because of it. Not to mention the health and safety risks to staff and customers or the fact that the cost of these crimes leads to higher prices.
The last government sat watching the problem grow. Rather than grab the criminals by the scruff of the neck, we grabbed the popcorn and just looked on. It encouraged crime. The crooks knew they wouldn’t be touched.
We overthought a response and became paralysed by analysis. We over-interpreted the law and spent all our time going out of our way to not touch, offend or apprehend the offenders. We spent all our time worrying we might overstep the mark and in the process we undershot it by some margin and the thugs won.
It’s tempting to say these crimes are down to the cost-of-living crisis; that people are stealing to feed their families. But retail crime isn’t just the poor seeking a feed.
My friend is a security guard at one of the country’s biggest Pak’nSaves. He’s familiar with “gangs of thieves” who belong to organised crime rings that would, at their peak, target eight supermarkets a day - that’s eight supermarkets per thief. As an organised group of thieves, they worked off a roster, so no two people were in the same supermarket at the same time. Their modus operandi involved older men wearing loose clothing and stuffing expensive cuts of meat up their shirts and into their jackets.
Retail crims have openly been flipping us the bird, but their arrogance, swagger, entitlement and lack of empathy has driven us to find a solution.
The National-led coalition government has spent the better part of the past year finding a solution and a stick to whack these people with. Now it is promising to amend the Crimes Act to give citizens more ability to arrest or detain, with the aim of tackling retail crime. Those making “citizens’ arrests” will be required to contact police for further instructions.
But you can’t accuse the government of getting bogged down in the detail – the announcement came with few details. More cops? No – and despite a target of 500 new police officers, we have fewer of them than when the coalition took office at the end of 2023.
Instead, the solution is … us. You, me and the next guy or girl -- we’ll all have the powers to make a citizen’s arrest and detain alleged offenders if we suspect something isn’t right.