No public eye on private eyes

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33865, 10 June 1975, Page 1

No public eye on private eyes

(From

OLIVER RIDDELL,

Wellington reporter of '"Rhe Press.")

New Zealand’s 1000 full-time private detectives and security guards, and probably about 3000 part-time workers in the field, still do not have to be

licensed; no registrar of private investigators and security guards has been appointed yet.

Under the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act, 1974, all such people will need a licence to practise their trade once a registrar has been appointed. i A barrister in Auckland has

I been approached by the Jus- , tice Department to accept the . post, but negotiations on salary and conditions have not been concluded. : When a registrar is appoinl ted, his office will be in Auck- • land.

For the act to come into force, an Order-in-Council will be needed, but the department cannot seek this until a registrar is appointed.

The department hopes to be able to do this in August, 12 months after the legislation was passed. There are no accurate figures on just how many workers in investigation and

security, as defined by the i act, will need to be licensed. IA spokesman for the department said today that the compilation of such figures would be one of the first duties of the new .registrar. IDENTITY CARDS

Licence-holders, whether full-time or part-time, will be required to carry an identity card issued by the registrar. The registrar will have no office outside Auckland, but forms for applications or objections to a licence will be available at all Magistrate’s Court offices. Anyone may oppose an application for a licence,

although in most cases only the police are expected to, and any objection will be heard by the registrar himself, but in the home town of the person applying, and not in Auckland.

The applicant may appeal to the Supreme Court when a licence is refused, and to the Magistrate’s Court when a licence is suspended, but the department spokesman said that an objector to a licence had no right of appeal.

The floating population of part-time guards and investigators is the one which is ‘expected to cause the biggest

headaches for the registrar and the police. The Justice Department has an estimate of full-time workers in the field, but concedes that it is a very rough one. There are no worth-while figures on part-time workers. Restrictions are laid down bv the act as to who may hold a licence, but unless the; registrar has a very large office checking the credentials of applicants it will be almost impossible to apply 1 the full rigours of the act to part-time employees. The department spokesman said that the registrar was likely to have a very busy first 12 months.