Police eye new tech to snap criminals

Police are looking to upgrade their surveillance gear to include ‘‘advanced facial recognition technology’’ able to be used through closed-circuit television cameras.

With a network of CCTV cameras across the country, it would give criminals fewer places to hide. Also, in the hi-tech system would be suspects, prisoners, firearms licence details, missing people and those on the child sex offender register.

Police stressed in a response to an Official Information Act request that any decision on the software, which has gone out to tender, is far from a done deal.

They could not say how the new surveillance system would be an improvement on the old, but said the current facial recognition technology was ‘‘outdated and limited’’, and clothing, scars, marks and tattoos could not be viewed other than in text or code.

Police national forensics services manager Inspector John Walker said the new system would allow ‘‘advanced facial recognition technology to assist in the identification of unknown offenders where a facial image is available for comparison – for example through CCTV’’.

Officers on the beat would be able to get photos directly to their phones, and could show witnesses a series of images.

Much of the technology was already covered by existing legislation, but Walker said some legal advice had been sought on privacy issues. He would not say what this involved as it was legally privileged.

Wellington human rights lawyer Michael Bott said the police move showed it was time New Zealand had a debate about what information stayed private in this era of big data and surveillance.

The Cambridge Analytica case, which effectively dragged an ‘‘electronic driftnet’’ through people’s data, then used the gathered information to manipulate, showed how powerful big data was.

The State could effectively monitor mobile phones, CCTV, banking details, spending, where you go, what you buy and your preferences.

‘‘We expect that police will be aware of their Privacy Act obligations and responsibilities when collecting personal information.’’ Spokesman for the privacy commissioner

While the tender documents showed a lot of ‘‘nice-to-haves’’, some of it could come at a cost to our privacy, Bott said.

‘‘We want to have that debate before the nightmare happens.’’

In China, technology was able to identify a single person in a crowd of 60,000. While there was no suggestion New Zealand had technology at that level, we did need to move carefully to avoid an ‘‘Orwellian’’ future, he said.

‘‘We are not yet a police state, but is it a debate we should be having?’’

Police said they were able to access CCTV cameras run by local authorities or other groups that had put them in place for crime prevention. Some were monitored by police.

‘‘Access to those not monitored by police may be through the consent of the owner or, if required, a search warrant or production order,’’ a police statement said.

Sharing of CCTV information was covered by the Privacy Act, which police had no plans to try to change.

A spokesman for the privacy commissioner said his office had not yet talked to police about the proposed use of biometric technology, but that was not unusual so early in the process.

‘‘We look forward to having those discussions. We expect that police will be aware of their Privacy Act obligations and responsibilities when collecting personal information.’’

If accepted, the technology would likely be in place in 2019, police said.