Posting images of suspected thieves may carry serious legal and ethical consequences, a barrister warns. Photo: 123rf
Retail theft in New Zealand has reached staggering levels, with an estimated $2.6 billion in losses each year - double the figure from a decade ago.
Amid mounting frustration, some business owners and residents are resorting to posting images of alleged offenders from security footage on shop windows, social media, and neighbourhood apps.
But Auckland barrister John Munro warns that these public "naming and shaming" tactics may carry serious legal and ethical consequences.
Speaking to Sunday Morning's Jim Mora, Munro said while using CCTV to identify suspected offenders was not illegal, publicly sharing those, especially with language that implied guilt could be risky.
"It's legitimate in my view to provide those images to the police so they can investigate," Munro explained.
"Or you might want to provide them to your staff.
"But you are at risk if you end up publishing those sorts of images.
"Firstly there's a chance you might be mistaken about your suspicion that they've committed a crime. And secondly, if you are wrong, you could cause serious embarrassment to that person and make yourself vulnerable to defamation proceedings."
Retailers have increasingly taken to labelling images of suspected shoplifters with words like "trespassed" or "wanted".
While understandable given the scale of ongoing theft, Munro cautioned against implying guilt without due process.
"You'd be safer if you put that up encouraging people to identify that person and go to the police," he said.
Munro cited a 2016 case in which the Privacy Commissioner upheld a complaint against a shop owner who posted CCTV footage of three teenage girls allegedly stealing. Only two were charged. The third, who was never charged, suffered public humiliation.
"Publishing it was wrong because the girl firstly, the girl, wasn't a proper suspect," Munro said.
"It was really just naming and shaming, not actually using the CCTV for any legitimate purpose."
Minors, in particular, are a legally sensitive category. Munro noted that New Zealand's laws, as well as international agreements such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, set strict limits around identifying young people.
"There are very strict rules around identifying minors, in our courts," he said.
Mora asked whether this wave of public shaming was a symptom of a deeper frustration - that the justice system was failing to protect business owners and the public.
"I very much understand it," Munro replied.
"I live in the community and I see that going on a lot."
Munro was critical of proposed amendments to the Crimes Act that would allow citizens to use "reasonable force" to stop offenders, saying it opened the door to violence and legal chaos.
"It's a real gold mine for disaster.
"What is reasonable in the circumstance?
"It is a really slippery slope. Things go horribly wrong when untrained people are in high-pressure situations."
He pointed to the risks involved when untrained individuals try to detain or restrain suspects.
"One punch to the head can actually kill someone.
"People who are not trained in safe means of restraint can kill... if facing downwards on the ground."
Even legal thresholds for arresting shoplifters can be problematic.
Retailers often deal with repeated low-value thefts that do not meet the $1000 threshold for a citizen's arrest. But misjudging the value of stolen goods could lead to wrongful action, he noted.
As for government efforts to deter retail crime by increasing penalties or removing sentencing discounts, Munro is sceptical.
There's no real evidence that harsher sentences deter crime, he said.
"The real answer to a lot of these is actually putting the money into the police force.
"Getting more police officers on the street... so that people can see them.
"That's the real deterrent."
So while the frustration over retail crime was understandable Munro said, taking justice into one's own hands, either by force or through public shaming, was a dangerous path.
"A lot of care needs to be taken... that you're not inciting violence on people who might be innocent."
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