Stalking law's first months: 918 warnings, 140 charges, no convictions
Police have issued 918 stalking and harassment notices and laid 140 charges since New Zealand's new anti-stalking law took effect in May, with no convictions recorded to date.
Ministry of Justice figures set out the court position in more detail. Of the 140 charges, 19 had been finalised. All 19 were withdrawn, according to RNZ. None resulted in conviction and sentencing.
The figures cover the first months under the Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Act 2025. The Act inserted a standalone stalking and harassment offence into the Crimes Act 1961 as section 216Q. It was the first time New Zealand made stalking a specific criminal offence, as set out in legislation and an earlier parliamentary explainer.
The offence targets unwanted, persistent intrusions into another person's life that cause serious psychological, social and economic harm. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The legal threshold is specific. Police describe the offence as a pattern of behaviour directed at a person through one or more specified acts. The Ministry of Justice says it is a criminal offence when a person carries out a specified act on at least two separate occasions within two years.
Police received two new tools under the law. They can serve a notice warning about behaviour, much like a formal warning placed on the record, and they can charge for the offence itself, according to Police. The 918 notices reported by the New Zealand Herald sit alongside the 140 charges, making more than 1,000 combined actions in just over three months.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell said the law was proving highly successful, in a Beehive release on 18 September. They judged it on uptake. Use was the measure.
That final design was not the version first introduced. The Government broadened the proposed law during its passage through Parliament, with a longer timeframe and a lower threshold for enforcement action, as reported by RNZ in June 2025.
Tracking from here will sit with standard justice data. The Ministry of Justice publishes tables showing finalised and convicted charges by offence type, charge outcome and sentence type.
The broader context here is familiar to anyone who follows implementation. Ministers will point to notices and charges as evidence the system is being used. Lawyers and select committee scrutiny will look elsewhere. Early withdrawal of all finalised charges raises questions about how charges are constructed, what evidence is needed for pattern and harm, whether victims are willing to proceed, and the time lag between a May start and defended cases reaching outcome.
None of that is resolved in four months of data. The withdrawals do not establish a trend. They do set the baseline officials will be asked to explain. Expect attention on how notices are used in practice, whether they interrupt behaviour without prosecution, how Police document the two occasions within two years, and how prosecutors frame serious harm for the courts under section 216Q.
