Dear New Zealand Police,

Kia ora,

Please treat this message as a request under the Official Information Act 1982.

I am seeking information about any technology deployed on New Zealand Police vehicles that is capable of actively scanning, capturing, or processing vehicle registration plates (automatic number-plate recognition / ANPR, LPR, plate-scanning cameras or similar systems).

Specifically, please provide the following information for the period 1 January 2024 to present (or, if easier, details of the systems currently in use and any systems used during the past 12 months):

1. A description of all systems used on police vehicles capable of detecting, reading, or scanning number plates (make/model, vendor, and software where applicable).

2. Whether these systems perform real-time scanning of plates in the vehicle’s vicinity (as opposed to only targeted/manual scans). If so, please describe how “vicinity” is defined operationally (range/coverage).

3. The intended operational uses of the vehicle-mounted plate-scanning systems (e.g., offender detection, stolen vehicle checks, surveillance, missing persons, traffic enforcement).

4. Whether the systems operate continuously while the vehicle is on patrol, only when activated, or in other modes — and what triggers activation.

5. What databases or watchlists the scanned plate data is checked against (e.g., Police national databases, Waka Kotahi, NZTA, other interagency or private lists).

6. Data capture and retention practices:

What data is stored when a plate is scanned (plate text, photo/image, GPS coordinates, timestamp, vehicle make/model, etc.)?

Retention periods for the different data types.

Where and how the data is stored (on-vehicle, central servers, cloud providers — and their locations).

7. Who has access to scanned plate data (roles/groups) and what access controls/auditing exists.

8. Any policies, internal guidelines, or standard operating procedures that govern the use of vehicle-based plate-scanning systems. Please provide copies of those documents.

9. Any privacy impact assessments, legal advice, risk assessments, or similar reviews carried out in relation to these systems. Please provide copies.

10. Details of any contracts, procurement documents, or Memoranda of Understanding with vendors or other agencies relating to vehicle plate-scanning technology (please supply redacted copies where necessary).

11. Any known instances, summaries, or statistics of how often plate scans have resulted in actionable matches in the period requested (e.g., number of hits on watchlists, arrests resulting from scans) — aggregated if necessary for privacy.

12. Details of training given to staff in the operation and lawful use of plate-scanning technology.

If some of the above information is not held centrally, please advise which Police districts or units hold the information and, where possible, provide the relevant contacts or transfer responsibility for that portion of the request to the appropriate unit.

Please provide the documents in an electronic format (PDF or Word), and where parts of the request are refused, please provide the legal grounds for refusal and any severable information that can be released.

If there are charges associated with processing this request, please let me know an estimate of the cost and whether you require a deposit before proceeding. If you consider any part of this request to be better handled as a directed request to a specific branch (e.g., National Headquarters, CIRT, Traffic, or Technology Services), please advise and transfer it accordingly.

My contact details are below — please contact me if you need to clarify scope, and otherwise please acknowledge receipt of this request under the Official Information Act.

Ngā mihi nui / Kind regards,

Yours faithfully,
Jakob Parker