Then, using a specially-designed mobile phone app, they are sending them to a national police database, which can be accessed by police staff in real time. Across the country, police are approaching innocent young people, photographing them and collecting their personal details. RNZ can now reveal this was the tip of the iceberg. Last year, RNZ reported that young Māori in Wairarapa had been stopped and photographed by police when they were walking along the street. What happened to the Sadlier sisters' nephews wasn't a one-off. They scuttled through the front door, eyes wide with fear. The boys sat together in the back seat and didn't tell their koro a thing.īut Naomi and Charlene Sadlier knew, as soon as they arrived home, that the boys were shaken. When it was over, the car ride home was silent. "Take your hats off and look into the lens". "We're going to take your photo now," the officer said. The officers collected their details, and then they asked the boys to stand still. For a moment, they considered calling out his name, but they didn't. The boys' eyes darted back to the store where their koro was. Strangers driving past gawked out their windows as the officers explained they met the description of offenders they were looking for. They denied knowing anything about the stolen money, but that did not convince the men in uniform. "Where's the bag of money you stole," one officer asked, nearly shouting. Before long, the officers were standing at their feet. They were standing outside Cash Converters on Whanganui's main street, waiting for their koro to finish looking in the store, when two policemen caught their eye. Two young boys, 14 and 15, were alone when it happened to them. Naomi and Charlene Sadlier want police to apologise because their boys came home and felt embarrassed.
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