Carolyn Young: Retail NZ Chief Executive on government expected to revamp shoplifting and trespassing laws

Shoplifting and trespassing laws are expected to get a revamp this week. 

Newstalk ZB understands policy changes relating to Retail Crime Ministerial Advisory Group recommendations are imminent.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith's previously labelled current trespassing laws as not fit for purpose. 

Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young told Ryan Bridge the changes should deal with recidivist offending.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government this week expected to make an announcement on
retail crime. Previous changes announced include expanding citizens arrest powers.
You remember that one. Apparently this week they will make
changes and announce changes I should say, around laws for
shoplifting and theft. It also comes on the back of
that police direction remember this where an internal directive revealed

(00:21):
that they would only respond to shoplifting worth more than
five hundred bucks. Carolyn Young is the chief executive retail INZED. Carolyn,
good morning, What Anna?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
How are you this line?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Very well? Thank you? Now, I know you're on the
government's advisory group for retail crime. Do you what are you?
Probly assumably you've been given a heads up about what's
happening this week. What are they looking at?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, I guess it's a couple of things. One is
that we know that there's a lot of recidivis defending
in retail, so people coming back time and time and
time again, so really being able to deal with those
offenders and having charges and repercussions in the court system

(01:06):
that are deterrents against those offending. So if someone comes
into your shop and they steal one hundred and fifty dollars,
and it's one hundred and twenty dollars, and it's you know,
like it's a cumulative factor. It all adds up. So
making sure that the police have the tools in which
they can use data to ensure that they capture all
of someone's offending so then they can be dealt with

(01:28):
at the highest level rather than at the lowest level.
So that's why it's really important not to have thresholds
around for police because a lot of offending is not
necessarily done at a higher level, but cumulatively it's thousands
and thousands of dollars, So being able to really do
something that will impact them through the court system is
one piece.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
The other thing just in terms of record keeping for that,
do you at the moment, do retailers have the ability
to keep those records so that that can be enacted properly.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, there's a couple of things. One is that for
the bigger stores, they use a platform called Aura, which
is effectively a really smart database where the police can
then go through and link various crimes that have been
committed that a very similar look into them and determine
whether they're done by the same people, and then you

(02:21):
know they're able to capture them that way, and so
that's a really useful tool. For the smaller retailers, they
need to use one O five or one one one,
which you know is a little more tricky. So it
is up to the police to be able to do
those connections and for the police to have better resources
and tools, and that's going to be really important to
be effective. So not only that retailers need to report

(02:45):
every crime so that it's really understood the size of
the issue, so that we get the right resourcing, but
also to have the right tools for police to be
able to really link a lot of that offending together
so that when they go to court they really dealt
with appropriately.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
On the full list. What's the other thing to change
your reckons.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Coming well a little bit further down the line, but
trespass is really important. It's because we've had these decidipus offenders.
You're really having the ability to trespass someone that's in
your store that's either aggressive or violent or offending on
a regular basis so that they can't come back again,
and having some teeth in behind that and something that

(03:23):
fits in modern society. That's going to be wrong.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
What's not making that work at the moment, because you
can trustpass people at the moment, right, so what's not working?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, you can trust past people at the moment. It
is quite tricky because the laws are really structured for
when you know the person, you know your name and
you know their address, being able to use like a
photo to trespass someone, being able to assure trespass notice
even if they're walking away and want to accept it,
and then you know, then using that as a tool

(03:54):
to identify someone as they're coming into your store so
that then you don't get them in your store. So
modernizing it, making it easier to actually process that.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Less of a consultative or consensus approach to delivering it too. Carolyn,
I appreciate your time, Carolyn Young, Chief executive retailion Z.
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