Source: Radio New Zealand
The financial burden of keeping the camera going is “colossal”, say community groups. Unsplash/ Johny Goh
Community-owned high-tech cameras were used to catch suspects in two killings, but the volunteer group involved can not afford to keep running the crime fighting kit.
Cameras that link to automated number plate recognition software run by private companies are spreading throughout the country.
Police are increasingly accessing the systems – more than half a million times a year – to identify plates from street or carpark footage that is hours, weeks or months old.
But police told RNZ there were no plans to cover costs of these cameras for councils or businesses.
Hisbiscus Coast is looking at more than doubling its cameras to up to 20 after multiple crimes, and Turangi is asking locals if they want to pay for a system.
Other councils are accessing more than $2 million in government funding for ANPR or straight CCTV cameras.
Featherston Community Patrol put four cameras in a year ago on the four main approaches to the south Wairarapa town.
Police wrote to Patrol secretary Vicky Alexander in June, praising the quick payback.
“Within seven days of operation, these cameras were utilised by police after a person wanted for murder in the Hutt Valley was seen driving through Featherston,” the police letter said.
“Within two days this male was arrested and is now before the courts.
“In March this year a male was shot and killed in the Fresh Choice car park in Featherston,” it went on. “The new cameras recorded the whole incident, and two males are now in custody facing murder charges.”
Police said they were grateful to the Community Patrol and South Wairarapa District Council for the “immediate effect” on crime.
‘We didn’t realise there was an annual fee’
Alexander said she was “definitely very pleased with the outcome, but disappointed with the financial burden”.
“It’s colossal.”
Police use of a major ANPR system leapt by more than 70 percent one year, then by 26 percent the following year to 2024.
“This is likely attributable to [ANPR supplier] 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,” a police report said.
Police have encouraged communities to put in cameras. They wrote Featherston a letter in support of getting grants in mid-2024.
“Whether to install cameras, and how they will cover costs of the cameras, is a decision for councils, community groups and businesses to make for themselves. Police does not instruct entities to install this technology,” police told RNZ in a statement on Friday.
The Featherston patrol has no access to the actual footage but it must pay a service charge to the ANPR commercial provider.
This charge of $6500 this year is more than the entire budget of a tiny group that had to run garden tours to fundraise for a patrol car.
Alexander said it was their own fault for not asking enough questions.
“We didn’t do due diligence. We didn’t realise there was an annual fee. We just thought a big fee upfront.
“Some of us wanted to ask more questions, but we felt the camera proposal was a really good one and we should go with it.”
They would not have installed them had they known it was going to turn into a financial struggle, she said.
Police twice wrote letters to support Featherston patrol’s bids for funding.
But this year’s grant has nearly run out, leaving them hoping the South Wairarapa District Council will take the cameras over.
‘It’s important that we get the cameras in’
Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, has been looking at more than doubling its cameras, but that project has been held up as community groups work out who will pay for that upgrade.
Local community patrol leader John Redwood supported the use of the cameras, but his team just gave back about $12,000 to the community board and pulled out of the project.
“I would just say due to a conflict of interest, [there was] no possibility of getting ongoing costs involving the project.
“We didn’t feel that it was fair to the community or to the council to keep on barging on,” Redwood said.
Neighbourhood Support may pick it up.
Gary Brown – who is on the Hibiscus and Bays local board – said the need had grown in the past six months. After an arson and ramraids at shops in Orewa – cameras came up at a meeting of local business owners and police a couple of weeks ago.
“Now that these incidents have happened in Orewa, it’s important that we get the cameras in,” said Brown.
“There’s the odd business that isn’t keen on the cameras, I think basically because of the cost. So it’s important that we can get as much subsidy as we can to ensure that these cameras can be done.”
An application was being worked on for a million dollars, but it was too early to give any details, he said.
The costs were too high, he said. A charge by Auckland Transport to put in a camera pole at $4000 was “exorbitant”.
Charges waived temporarily
Auckland Transport said it acknowledged the concerns, but its charges reflected the legal and other costs of putting poles in the road corridor.
It said for the next six months it would waive the application fee and cover legal costs for business improvement districts across Auckland that wanted to put in cameras.
Spending between $500,000 and $1m has been recently accessed from a government fund for cameras around Whakatane, Waikato and Waipa districts. South Wairarapa’s share of this funding has been used up.
In Whakatane, a council report showed about half the 40 new cameras installed could read licence plates. The council had “significant input from NZ Police”.
Winton in Southland is this week debating what to do about its old cameras after an upgrade bid last year was rejected, partly due to cost worries. Turangi is looking at licence plate cameras – its community patrol logged more than 4000 hours on its patrol car camera last year.
The Community Patrols national body was now looking at coming up with guidelines for groups keen to install number plate cameras, said chair Chris Lawton.
‘Use of these sorts of cameras is growing’
National Criminal Investigations Group director Detective Superintendent Keith Borrell told RNZ that CCTV cameras with ANPR power were a valuable crime-fighting tool.
“We are aware that the use of these sorts of cameras is growing across the country as more councils, community groups, and businesses have seen their value for their security and decide to install them.
“These groups are not required to advise police when these cameras are installed and we are often only aware of them when they report a crime, or provide information during the course of an investigation,” Borrell said. “We do engage with the community and encourage them to provide us with information that may help us to prevent and solve crime.”
Police have previously engaged in promotional activity with another major ANPR provider, Auckland company Auror
The cameras’ spread continues even as a legal challenge against the police using them so much continues at the Court of Appeal.
Vicky Alexander of Featherston also saw some pushback online occasionally, but thought it was too late for that.
“They’re everywhere,” she laughed. “I think they are fighting a losing battle.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand