Crime / Te Ao Maori

Will US protests prompt NZ police reform?

08:12 am on 13 June 2020

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Khylee Quince Photo: supplied

Could the #BlackLivesMatter protests, spurred by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, be a catalyst for police reform here in Aotearoa?

It's long overdue, according to Khylee Quince, associate professor of law at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

Justice advocates say evidence of institutional racism is clear: in the last 10 years, two-thirds of all victims of fatal police shootings have been Māori or Pasifika, and compared with Pākehā, Māori are much more likely to be handcuffed, pepper sprayed, batoned, tasered, or have a firearm drawn against them by police.

So how do we meet the challenge of reforming our police force?