Police are planning to review their number plate recognition systems training and conduct an audit of how the systems are being used, after detectives reportedly falsely listed cars as stolen so they could access private CCTV networks while tracking Covid-infected women who triggered a lockdown in Northland last October.
Police Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday that he would reserve his judgement on the matter until police had investigated.
And police have responded, explaining that police-owned Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras will automatically generate alerts for any vehicle of interest but "in respect of third-party ANPR systems, only vehicles with stolen alerts entered will be automatically detected by ANPR cameras".
However, there is a "preferable" solution other than falsely listing the vehicle as stolen, they acknowledged.
"Police also have the ability to enter specific vehicles of interest into third party ANPR systems to generate alerts under specific circumstances," a police spokesperson said. "The vehicle's registration number could have been supplied individually to Auror (the company whose network detected the women) under the policy as information indicated a serious risk to public health existed.
"A vehicle should not be entered into a police database as stolen unless circumstances indicate it is stolen."
In response to the claims, police staff are being reminded of the police ANPR policy.
"Work will also begin on a review of training in the use of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition)," the spokesperson said. "Police is also looking to conduct an audit to confirm that the platform - a highly valuable investigative tool – is being used appropriately.
"Police were able to lawfully locate this vehicle, and while well intended, this was not the appropriate way to generate an automatic alert, which in the end, had the same outcome."
An Auror spokesperson said yesterday they had reached out to police to ensure correct procedures are followed and to offer support for further training, adding that the company takes privacy issues very seriously.
A spokesperson for SaferCities, whose private CCTV network was also accessed during the search, said that a new feature on its platform has become available since last October which "enables Police to manually enter specific vehicles of interest for alerting, when appropriate, and in full compliance with legislation and police's ANPR policy".
They said that the company had spoken to police yesterday around a training programme to ensure officers were aware of the feature.
"It is our understanding that police were lawful in tracking this vehicle, however as vGRID Plates of Interest was not available at the time, entering it as stolen, to enable real-time alerts, was a workaround given the urgency of the request."
Earlier this month it was revealed the women at the centre of the lockdown had been given permission to travel to Northland, having previously had their application rejected.
At the time, the incident was incorrectly labelled a border breach which led to the region entering a level 3 lockdown.
SHARE ME