Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister on 90 reported citizen's arrests being carried out since powers began
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What are the new citizen's arrest powers and how many arrests have been reported?
Would it surprise you if I told you we had ninety citizens' arrests in forty four days, so new law allows people to detain offenders using reasonable force? Paul Goldsmith is the Minister of Justice morning. Good morning, Mike. Have you arrested anyone yourself?
Uh no, no I haven't had the occasion to do that, but uh it's part of our effort to restore law and order in this country over the last three years in which we've
made good progress. But we're doing two a day.
Did the number of citizen's arrests exceed the Minister’s expectations?
What's happening? W were there people just just just ready to rock and roll as soon as you gave us the law to do it, you reckon? Well, do you think that's more than you expected or less than that? Well, way more than I expected. I mean what uh who the hell's going out and arresting other people, for goodness sake? Well, uh uh
because we ha we had people just walking out of stores on a very regular basis up and down the country without paying for things and uh they knew that nobody could stop them.
Who is primarily using the citizen's arrest law – small business owners or larger retailers?
Uh and so what we did was uh change the laws so uh what you could do uh at night before you can do at any time of the day. Uh and that's pretty important.
Is it mainly proprietors? In other words, m owners of dairies and supermarkets and stuff like that. Well look,
I haven't seen the details of those stats yet, but I imagine it would be more often to be small business people. Uh and uh look it's part of that wider effort to uh just give a tool, uh something that people can do when people are walking out uh not paying for things. 'Cause you know, it's everybody else that has to pay uh if uh theft is not controlled.
What concerns do citizens have about confronting shoplifters and facing police scrutiny?
No, it's just uh no, no, no, I'm I'm not against the law per se. I'm just interested I I don't know that I'd back myself to to jump on somebody, you know, and then you get yourself in trouble with the police and that person's lying on the ground going, He hit me in the head and then the police go, Did you hit him in the head? No, I didn't, I just you know what I mean? It's got it's got trouble written all over it. Well yes, but uh I mean
Course it's not compulsory to do it.
What are the legal guidelines for safely performing a citizen's arrest?
Uh it's really just an option. If if if somebody sees somebody walking out of their store, they they feel confident that they can hang on to them. Of course they first have to then they if they can hang on to them, then they ring the police and follow the instructions of the police. Uh that's the that's the rule. Only use as much force as necessary to uh restrain the person. Uh so there there there are clear things in place, but you know, it's just one small thing we can do to help uh push back against this tide of crime that we inherited three years ago uh and we've made good progress uh pushing back on so far.
Appreciate your time as always, Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith. For more from the Mike Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talks Ed B from 6 A.M. weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are the new citizen's arrest powers and how many arrests have been reported?
0:00–0:23
2
Did the number of citizen's arrests exceed the Minister’s expectations?
0:23–0:45
3
Who is primarily using the citizen's arrest law – small business owners or larger retailers?
0:45–1:18
4
What concerns do citizens have about confronting shoplifters and facing police scrutiny?
1:18–1:37
5
What are the legal guidelines for safely performing a citizen's arrest?
1:37–2:18
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