New M.O.T. powers ‘unnecessary’

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 2

New M.O.T. powers ‘unnecessary’

By

PATTRICK SMELLIE

in Wellington

New powers for traffic officers to enter private property were an unnecessary and dishonest jackup, the president of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties, Mr Barry Wilsbn, said yesterday. Traffic officers had sufficient powers already to enter private property in pursuit of a suspected

offender, he said. They were simply choosing not to use that power. A Court of Appeal case in 1977 had established traffic officers’ rights ,to enter private land in Such cases. “If traffic officers don’t know that, then that’s a fault in their training, not a fault in the existing law,” he said.

Recent controversy over an arrest in a house in Auckland had prompted traffic enforcement authorities to seek greater legal backing to enter private land. “Under the proposed law, traffic officers will have the right to break into private property. “The need for this extension of power is not demonstrated and

the dangers are enormous,” said Mr Wilson. “But the important point is that the basis on which these powers are being sought is quite spurious. “It is being portrayed as a loophole in the law. There is no such loophole.” This was a bad example of the pre-Christmas law-making rush, Mr Wilson said.