Chris Macklin: Law Society Criminal Law Committee convenor on the Government's 'intrusive' updated gang patch bill

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The Law Society says pumping up the proposed gang patch bill gives police intrusive search powers.

Cabinet has agreed to add a clause to the bill banning patches in public to ban them in the homes of members repeatedly defying the public ban.

It was added in August, after the bill had gone through the Select Committee process, even though Ministers were briefed on options in March.

The Society's Chris Macklin says this change shouldn't have been added without some scrutiny.

"The reaching into homes is a pretty big concern - and it's exactly for that reason you'd expect that it would have been consulted on rather than put into a late amendment."

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