Thousands of cameras connect to private systems that more 8000 police personnel can access. File photo. Photo: 123RF
Police use of camera technology used to spot individual number plates is continuing to rise rapidly.
Retailers use automated number plate recognition (ANPR) camera footage to back up crime reports to police, while police tap in to the system for a "wide range of other law enforcement applications", according to reviews.
New figures show usage rose 16 percent in the past 12 months and 70 percent in two years, to almost 600,000 hits a year - about 50,000 times a month, or 1600 times a day.
Thousands of cameras at supermarkets or on main roads connect to one of two private systems that more 8000 police personnel can access.
Some number plates were being queried multiple times, said a police report on the newly released figures.
Putting in a plate repeatedly could circumvent the controls meant to stop vehicles being tracked in virtual real time, and this has been previously flagged with officers.
"While the intuitive explanation is that multiple staff members are legitimately requesting the same information, further investigation is required to understand the reasons underlying this pattern and if any reinforcing messaging is required," said the new report.
Actual live tracking of a car in real time - which the systems can also do, but which requires special approval for police - continues to just a few hundred times a year from several thousand.
Aucklanders appear most exposed to ANPR, because parking wardens have added the technology to 25 cars patrolling for Auckland Transport.
The mass routine use of Auror - one of the two systems - by police without a warrant or production order is being challenged in the Court of Appeal.
Auror and SaferCities - another Auckland company - have deals with police, with Auror expanding rapidly overseas.
In routine use, the system can identify any number plate in footage going back 60 days.
The use of SaferCities has been behind much of the growth, up 26 percent to 342,000 times in the past year.
"This is likely attributable to SaferCities continuing to expand their network across the country, with the platform now becoming more relevant in parts of the country where they previously did not have much presence, leading to more staff becoming aware of its utility," said the report.
Police use of Auror has slowed its rapid rise - it hit 270 percent in 2020-21 - to four percent a year or 250,000 hits. Auror said many large retailers used it.
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