When did breaking the law become so enabled? When did we all turn a blind eye to petty crime?
Even more infuriating was Countdown’s response, “the spokesperson said Hamilton would only be entitled to footage if she was in the car at the time”.
Had she been in the car, she would probably have had time to get the registration number or perhaps the culprit might have had the courtesy to exchange details. She may also have got whiplash!
I had a similarly infuriating situation a few years back when my handbag with passport, credit cards and a lot of cash was stolen from just inside our front door. I had arrived back from London. An opportunist came down a flight of stairs and disappeared with the bag. I didn’t realise until 4 am the next day when I went to pay some bills.
I jumped online and saw some small payments to the local Countdown, a top-up of an AT Hop card, a Vodafone top-up, (this person knew the drill — small amounts may not be important) and then Uber food was delivered somewhere.
I immediately got in touch with Uber through Twitter and then AT. I lodged a police report.
It took me less than 24 hours to track a possible name, Levi, a phone number and locate several CCTV recordings of the person who stole my handbag.
AT told me my card had been used at a terminal overlooked by a security camera, offering up potential CCTV footage of the thief.
However, AT and Uber said they would not give the information to police unless a formal court order was made. And of course the police were busy!
What disappointed me was the lack of what I see as integrity by all the businesses involved. I’ve seen a fraud committed three times by different people in the past 10 years I’ve been in business. Each time I’ve done something about it. I got in touch with the victim (in one instance), the Companies Office, and an insurance company in other instances.
Why? Because it seemed like the decent and right thing to do. The victim replaced their driver’s licence and reported it to police. The Companies Office charged had a successful conclusion in court.
While the Privacy Act is vague on what the definition of “personal information” is, if someone is identifiable in CCTV footage, it is considered personal information.
Is the Privacy Act getting in the way of speedy investigations of petty crime?
Do we also need to have more-proactive, conscientious business practices? If a business sees a crime, can we do something about it? We all pay for it in one way or another.
If the “only party given access” to CCTV footage by companies is the police for “law enforcement purposes”, then what is the point if they are too busy? If the police have to go and ask a judge, with the courts as overloaded as they are, is this a sensible use of time and resources?
In 2018, the Herald reported of the nearly 50,000 thefts and related crimes in Auckland, 88.1 per cent, 43,887, were unresolved. The national figure wasn’t too different.
If the police don’t have resources to sort thefts and related petty crime, then as a community, we have to have a discussion on what matters to us. Can we stop enabling dishonest people?
Victoria Carter, ONZM, is a former city councillor and businesswoman.
