Police Accountability

TSHR has produced a mobile application that informs individuals of their legal rights when police officers use their powers to stop and search a person when they are driving or walking in public – The Know Your Rights App. The Know Your Rights App provides a user with legal information, supported by case law, statute, and police manual guidelines. All legal information relied upon is located within the mobile application. In addition, it gives the user the ability to covertly audio record communications with the police officer.

New Zealand’s Human Rights Commission details the existing bias within the justice system contribute towards police officers apprehend and arresting non-Europeans (racial profiling) at a greater rate than European populations. In addition to being systematically marginalised, minorities and especially Māori and Pasifika communities continue to experience disadvantage in the education system. The combination of racial profiling and lack of access to education, leave minorities, especially Māori and Pacific peoples, to not have meaningful access to rights based information. TSHR created the Know Your Rights app to provide communities access to justice through creating a mobile application, that is free to download, that provides legal information dependent on the situation a user is in. A user is simply required to click buttons depending on their current situation, such as, if they are in a car of if they are walking, and are subsequently led to the most appropriate legal information that can restrict a police officer’s ability to stop and search.

Follow this link to access the Know Your Rights App: Know Your Rights App

Like all TSHR products, the Know Your Rights Application does not collect, store or monitor your information.