Officials warned citizen arrests plan won’t reduce retail crime

Sunday, 27 April 2025

Minister for Justice Paul Goldsmith announces the retail crime Ministerial Advisory Group in 2024.

The Government was warned that broadening citizen arrest powers was unlikely to have an impact on retail crime levels in New Zealand, but pushed ahead with proposing it anyway, documents from the Ministry of Justice reveal.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced the controversial measures in February and told media at the time it would help tackle the retail crime problem.

The proposal would include four reforms:

Paul Goldsmith announces changes allowing citizen's arrests for any Crimes Act violation, aiming to reduce retail crime. He says the moves give retailers new tools to protect their businesses.

Amending the Crimes Act to allow citizens to stop an offender at any time of the day;
clarifying that restraints can be used when reasonable during an arrest;
changing the defence of property provisions to make it clear that reasonable force may be used; and
requiring that a person making an arrest contact police and follow their instructions.

Advisory group chair Sunny Kaushal has argued in favour of broadening citizen’s arrests.

Currently, a person - including retailers and security guards - can only conduct a citizen arrest at night if they have reasonable grounds to believe the person is committing an offence.

But they are not protected from civil or criminal liability if they arrest and detain a person stealing goods under $1000 during daytime hours. If the alleged offence being committed could be punishable by more than three years’ imprisonment as a maximum penalty, an arrest can be made.

The plan to widen citizen arrests aims to tidy up this grey area and was drawn up by a Ministerial Advisory Group specifically established to address retail crime. But it was widely panned when it was announced, including by groups in the retail sector and the Police Association.

The advisory group was launched last year and includes members of the business community, including chairperson Sunny Kaushal and Retail NZ chief Carolyn Young.

Emails and documents released to the Sunday Star-Times under the Official Information Act show officials from the Ministry of Justice had earlier warned the Government that updating citizen arrests would likely have no impact on the levels of retail crime in New Zealand.

“The drivers of the perceptions around intervention are mostly non-legislative,” said an advisor, citing “Police resourcing meaning Police are unable to attend citizen’s arrests, health and safety concerns from retailers and the security industry”.

At this point there were two possible avenues for reform - a broader proposal to amend the act to allow citizens to stop an offender at any time of the day, preferred by the advisory group, and another that had been softened by the ministry. Neither, officials said, were expected to impact retail crime. The Government picked the former.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith pushed ahead with the proposal despite the concerns raised by officials.

A Ministry of Justice briefing from last November noted that while the advisory group had identified “gaps with existing law” which could be confusing - such as around when an arrest could be made - broadening the rules alone would be unlikely to have an impact on crime levels.

“Many submitters to the [Ministerial Advisory Group] identified barriers to intervention by security guards as largely sitting outside the Crimes Act – the need for more training in the security profession, consideration of health and safety laws, risks to retailers’ brands, and police resourcing,” the briefing read.

“We are of the view that progressing legislative change without addressing these wider barriers will mean the proposals only have limited impact on offending levels, retailers’ safety, and ultimately, the public’s perception of crime.”

In late February, Goldsmith told reporters he believed the action would help stop future offending.

“This government will ensure that people working in the retail sector are being effectively protected, are empowered to stop offending, and that offenders are caught and deterred from future offending.”

Officials acknowledged that the proposal was, in their view, legally workable and enforceable and would “indicate to retailers, security and the public that they can justifiably intervene…”

The Star-Times asked Goldsmith about the advice he received and whether he believed, given the advice, the plan would have an impact on retail crime.

A spokesperson initially replied: “I think the fact the minister moved forward with this proposal, speaks for itself?”

In a subsequent response, the minister said: “My officials provide me with a range of advice and potential outcomes, but it is for the Government to determine how it moves forward.”

Documents show that officials were concerned the broader proposal put forward by the advisory group was “inherently riskier” and argued for a softer version that focused on limiting the amendments just to theft.

The Government, in consultation with the advisory group, ultimately moved ahead with broadening the proposal to cover all offences under the Crimes Act.

“The ministry’s responses were more limited in scope, and proposed making relatively small changes that would, in part, expand the relevant arrest provision in the Crimes Act to cover theft (of any amount),” a spokesperson said.

“The ministry acknowledged in its advice that the policy proposals did not address the drivers of retail crime, and so were unlikely to have any significant impact on levels of retail crime.”

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