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Police Commissioner: Community-run roadblocks are now close to zero

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 4 May 2020, 9:27AM
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. (Photo / NZ Herald)
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Police Commissioner: Community-run roadblocks are now close to zero

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 4 May 2020, 9:27AM

There is confidence from police that they have acted within the law.

Questions have been raised among senior officers around whether the force had proper legal authority, to enforce the level four lockdown.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told Mike Hosking he's happy with the way police have acted.

“I’m confident that Police have provided clear guidance for our people throughout.

“In the early days, we were seeking clarity over the powers that we could provide.”

He said that Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement had sought clarity over the powers they could exercise. "He's saying it was important to operate within the law."

Coster revealed the number of road blocks set up by communities and iwi had fallen from 30 to 50 to about seven, and he was confident this would drop to zero soon. Police had earlier promised there would be police presence at all road blocks.

He said the case of an NZ Herald journalist who came across a road block without a police officer present in Northland happened after a police staff member was called away to a critical event. The staff member soon returned.

Coster told Hosking the journalist was based in Auckland hundreds of kilometres from home - in fact, the journalist lives and works from Kerikeri.

 

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