{"id":445399,"date":"2026-05-26T04:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445399\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:16:14","slug":"police-say-we-could-have-done-better-as-new-stalking-laws-come-into-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445399\/","title":{"rendered":"Police say ‘we could have done better’ as new stalking laws come into force"},"content":{"rendered":"

New laws coming into force today will make stalking a recognised crime<\/a>, with police acknowledging that they “could have done better” in some past instances of responding to victims of stalking. <\/p>\n

The Crimes Advocacy (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill introduces a standalone offence for stalking and harassment, following years of advocacy from victim-survivors and campaigners<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Inspector Natasha Allen, acting Director of Prevention, said the new legislation enabled police to act earlier, recognising stalking as a pattern of behavior rather than isolated incidents. <\/p>\n

Police would be allowed to issue a stalking and harassment notice at an early stage, warning an alleged offender their behaviour is unacceptable, and that continued conduct could lead to criminal charges. <\/p>\n

If a person engaged in at least two specified acts within a two-year period, they could be charged directly with the new offence without a notice being issued first. <\/p>\n

The offence carried a maximum penalty of up to five years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese new laws mean our staff can now take immediate action where stalking is identified,\u201d Allen said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise there have been instances in the past where we could have done better in supporting victims of stalking. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken steps to improve this, strengthening the way police assess and respond to these incidents.\u201d <\/p>\n

Allen said police had been trained on the new framework and would work directly with victims before notices were issued to develop safety plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is first and foremost on the victim\u2019s safety and wellbeing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to know police are here and will actively use these new laws to support them. Stalking and harassment can be ongoing and may escalate quickly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf people think they\u2019re being stalked, I\u2019d encourage them to reach out straight away to Police on 105, or 111 if they are in immediate danger.” <\/p>\n

\"Justice<\/p>\n

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

New laws ‘years in the making’ – Minister <\/p>\n

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith told Breakfast said the legislation had been “years in the making” and was designed to better protect people from escalation into serious harm. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a range of offences in the legislation such as attacking somebody\u2019s reputation online, loitering and doing any combination of things that over time show a pattern of causing fear and intimidation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with it is if it\u2019s left unchecked, it can lead to violent offending down the line. So we are trying to send a clear message here.” <\/p>\n

Goldsmith added the legislation, passed in November last year, was something a “wide group of people had been calling for, for a long time”. <\/p>\n

“There’s a whole pattern of work we are doing to make it very clear that we don’t tolerate stalking, and we don’t tolerate sexual offending in any way,” he said. <\/p>\n

“There will be consequences for it.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New laws coming into force today will make stalking a recognised crime, with police acknowledging that they “could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-445399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}