Police Ten 7

• The show’s former host Graham Bell, who described suspects variously as “creeps, halfwits, low-lifes, mongrels and lunatics”, claimed “wokeness killed Police Ten 7”.
• In 2021, Auckland Councillor Efeso Collins was threatened after tweeting that the show should be scrapped because it “feeds on racial stereotypes”.
• The controversy inspired us to analyse Police Ten 7 more closely and measure its treatment of Māori, Pasifika and European suspects – as well as police officers.

Framing the ‘bad guys’

• Among other data, we recorded the range of alleged offences and the airtime spent on each suspect.
• We then compared our data with 2020 police data on types of crime and ethnicity (including ethnicity of officers).

Suspect airtime

• We also looked at the airtime Police Ten 7 gave different suspects, compared to how often police dealt with them according to the data.
• Of the total airtime spent on suspects, 62% was spent on Māori or Pasifika, compared to 53% of total police proceedings in 2020.
• In comparison, the portion of airtime spent on European suspects (38%) more closely reflected how often police proceeded against Europeans in 2020 (36%).

Types of crime

• Over the 12 episodes sampled, 100% of those suspected of violent crime (homicide, sexual assault, endangering persons, property damage) were Polynesian.
• By contrast, police statistics show Māori and Pasifika made up 43% of traffic offence suspects, compared to only 6% on Police Ten 7.
• Police data show Europeans made up 34% of suspects for violent crime.

Others and ourselves

• Consequently, news and entertainment programmes help shape views of the criminal justice system and those involved in it.
• After all, the media shape not only how we see others, but also how we see ourselves.
• Any future New Zealand reality TV crime or police show would need to be mindful of these pitfalls and effects.