June 17, 2015
Licence warning system promotes harmony
Police are defending a policy of giving inlicensed drivers in south Auckland time to fix the problem rather than prosecuting them.
The policy is being slammed as race-based because a guideline document spelled out its application to the young Maori drivers caught in the net.
But Wally Haumaha, the police deputy chief executive Maori, says police have long had discretion on traffic compliance.
He says keeping young Maori out of the criminal justice system when there are other options is the right thing to do.
"If anybody thinks that it's okay for 70 per cent of our young Maori youth to pass through the youth courts and to be over represented in the criminal justice system from entry to exit, then police, courts, corrections. Well we have focussed for a long time on bringing down the numbers and also the social costs to this country." he says.
Wally Haumaha says the Turning the Tide initiative of police working with iwi and Maori communities is starting to have a real impact.
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