Police boss orders audit of spying software
The Police Commissioner has ordered a stocktake of surveillance technologies after police trialled controversial facial recognition software without consulting his office.
Last week, RNZ revealed police conducted hundreds of searches, including for suspects, using American software Clearview AI.
The trial between February and March did not have the necessary sign-offs from the Police Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner and the Cabinet.
Police said they do not intend to use Clearview because it was ineffective in New Zealand. Commissioner Andrew Coster yesterday said he had ordered a stocktake of any similar software being used. “I’ve commissioned a stocktake of any surveillance-type technologies that we may be using or trialling to make sure that there’s nothing equivalent [to Clearview].
“Clearly, technology is moving really quickly and it has good and appropriate application in law enforcement. The trick is for us to make sure we are doing that within the bounds of [the] Privacy Act.”
Coster said the trial, which ended before he assumed his role, was “a very narrow exercise” but given there could be privacy concerns if it was used he said police should have consulted the Privacy Commissioner. “We missed that crucial consultation.”
He also said police had not searched any homes without a warrant under controversial new powers granted by Parliament last week.
The new legislation grants police the ability to search premises if they believe Covid-19 epidemic rules are not being followed.
He said police need the power to act against things like out-of-control parties. “Powers do exist for other things like serious offending [and] noise control . . . but we can’t generally enter a property if . . . denied entry. So the powers allow us to sort out the outlier event.”