Pandemic policing: Preparing a new pathway for Māori?

Abstract

The government of Aotearoa/New Zealand has been widely praised for decisive actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The official 'lockdown' (entailing closed borders, emergency powers and instructions for everyone to 'stay at home') was introduced before any community transmission of the virus. In early June 2020, there had been 22 deaths from COVID-19 in NZ and, at 8th June 2020, there were no 'active' cases in the country. Life is returning to 'normal', notwithstanding stringent border controls. Running alongside the praise, however, has been a raft of criticisms about how authorities have circumvented usual standards of protection to embed controls and expand state power in detrimental ways. In the criminal justice sphere, the pandemic has given rise to the hurried escalation of remote Court technologies that challenge due process, alongside burgeoning remand populations and long prison lockdowns with women at Auckland Women's Prison being kept to their cells for up to 29 hours at a time (Espiner, 2020; Lynch and Tinsley, 2020). More broadly, there has been a backlash about the scale of intrusions from new legislation. For example, the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act was rushed through under urgency, without any Māori consultation, in May 2020 as the country's COVID-19 cases were declining (Aikman, 2020a). The Act gives extraordinary powers for entry to premises, such that 'An enforcement officer may enter, without a warrant, any land, building, craft, vehicle, place, or thing' on 'reasonable grounds' (s.20(1)). It will sit on the statute books for 2 years but will require renewal every 90 days. In this settler state, in which controls and punishments are differentially targeted on racialised grounds, Māori inevitably bear the brunt of increased controls, surveillance, incarceration or the removal of rights within the pandemic. In this respect, COVID-19 shifts are contextualised by a system in which Māori are over-policed, over-sentenced and over-punished (Whaipooti, 2020).

Reconnecting Māori in a post-COVID-19 world: a blessing in disguise

“…Sixteen articles from published literature emerged from the theme of revival of traditional practices (Dawes et al, 2021; Dutta et al, 2020; Finiki & Maclean, 2020; Keelan et al, 2021; Manurirangi & Jarman, 2021; McLeod et al, 2020; McMeeking et al, 2020; McMeeking & Savage, 2020; Muru-Lanning et al, 2021; Moeke-Maxwell et al, 2020; Penetito et al, 2021; Pihama & Lipsham, 2020; Rewi & Hastie, 2021; Severinsen et al, 2021; Stanley & Bradley, 2021; Whaanga & Merchant, 2021). Grey literature included Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated (2021) and Radio Kahungunu (2021).…”

Policing the pandemic in Australia and New Zealand: lessons for trust and legitimacy

“…In response, the police commissioner made public efforts to outline police's involvement (Coster, 2020), and in late 2021, legislation was amended to clarify the powers and arrangements at these checkpoints (RNZ Staff, 2021). Following these developments, police engagement with the checkpoints began to resemble more of a partnership (Stanley and Bradley, 2021). According to Deckert et al (2021), such instances of partnership resemble what they refer to as "next-to-government" policing.…”

‘Safer communities … together’? Plural policing and COVID-19 public health interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…It could be argued that NZP's move to work with Iwi checkpoints instead of mandating a stand-down -as it had done with CPNZ-affiliated community patrols -was motivated by trying to avoid further criticism of systemic racism. NZP having a long history of failing to acknowledge institutional racism, vacillating between outright denial and use of diluted terminology like 'unconscious bias' (Stanley and Bradley 2020). Yet, that the government failed to consider Indigenous sovereign policing rights in the context of a pandemic that disproportionately threatens Indigenous lives only serves to further the impression of NZP as a racially biased and oppressive force.…”

“…First, several Iwi (sovereign Māori nations) set up community checkpoints run by Iwi members (Hall et al 2020;Stanley and Bradley 2020). These Indigenous-led checkpoints sought to curb the spread of COVID-19 by non-essential travellers to protect predominantly Māori communities in remote parts of Aotearoa.…”

“…These Indigenous-led checkpoints sought to curb the spread of COVID-19 by non-essential travellers to protect predominantly Māori communities in remote parts of Aotearoa. Many Iwi deemed checkpoints necessary; remembering the lost lives of the 1918 influenza pandemic during which Māori died at eight times the rate of Pākehā iii (Stanley and Bradley 2020).…”