The private security company Cityguard is defending one of its officers who took photographs of children outside Newmarket Train Station during a patrol earlier this week, saying it is standard practice.
An Auckland woman who saw what happened says the children were unsupervised and very young, and left the area in a hurry when they saw what the security guard was doing.
The woman, who RNZ has agreed not to name, told reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui she was on her way home from work at the time.
In a statement, Cityguard's Managing Director Ian Crawford said the guard was asking a young person to stop skateboarding through the area he was patrolling.
He said it is routine for security guards to take photographs of people involved in incidents while on patrol, and the pictures are deleted after three months.
He said the photographs are not shared beyond the guard involved and that guard's direct manager.
