"This is shocking": Police slammed over sneaky trap
A New Zealand man has clashed with police after he accused an officer of posing as a window washer to catch drivers using their mobile phones.
While he was stopped at a traffic light in Manurewa, South Auckland, the man began filming after noticing an undercover cop in a hoodie standing nearby.
"He's the cop who gave me the ticket!" he can be heard telling a friend sitting in the car with him.
"This is bad, man. He's pretending to be a window washer!"
The passenger then gets out of the car and makes his way toward the officer to “let the public know” what was happening.
"Alright guys so we've got police here hiding, pretending to be window washers," he says while standing next to the police officer.
"So what they do is they stand here and they dress up in hoodies with a window washer thing and they're looking and trying to get people tickets for fines, maybe phones, seatbelts."
Within moments, several other officers approach the man.
One officer confirms that the “window washer” was an undercover cop, and when the man questions whether the tactic was “saving lives”, an officer says it was.
The man is then told by police that he could film but has to do it from the opposite side of the road so that the undercover operation isn’t interfered with.
The hoodie-wearing officer is then encouraged to return to his spot by the side of the road.
The clip has since been shared on TikTok and by Today FM, with morning talk show host Duncan Garner speaking to the man’s friend, Neil, who was in the car during the incident.
“I've driven up and down the country all the time and I’ve never seen any sort of act like this anywhere apart from there," Neil said.
"And the fact that he put on clothes to sort of fit into that area is really quite rude."
Stuff reported that NZ Police Inspector Tony Wakelin said the impersonation was inappropriate and that the operation would cease.
Meanwhile, social media users have been slamming the police for their “sneaky ways”.
"You cannot tell me this isn’t insanely deceptive," one commented.
"This is shocking," another shared.
"Isn't this entrapment?" a third said.
Others defended the operation, saying that the police were just trying to prevent people from doing the wrong thing.
"Lord. Get off your phone while you're driving. End of story," one wrote.
"No this is good, I have been rear-ended by someone texting and driving," another added.
"They are trying to prevent crime and save lives but at the same time they are distracting drivers which can cause accidents," one person shared on Reddit.
“So it’s not a good method".
Images: Today FM