New South Wales
Technology presence
What these categories mean
- ANPR
- Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR): camera systems that automatically capture, read, and log vehicle number plates with location and time, producing a searchable record of vehicle movements.
- Fixed cameras & RTCC
- Agency-operated fixed video cameras and the real-time crime centers (RTCC) that aggregate live and recorded feeds for monitoring.
- Face recognition
- Software that matches faces in images or video against a reference database to identify or verify individuals.
- Drones / UAS
- Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), commonly called drones, operated by an agency for overhead observation, imaging, or sensing.
- Gunshot detection
- Networks of acoustic sensors that detect and locate suspected gunfire and alert an agency.
- Body-worn & dashcam
- Officer body-worn and in-vehicle dashboard cameras that record encounters; public access to the footage is frequently restricted.
- Doorbell & camera registry
- Programs that give an agency access to privately owned camera footage: doorbell-camera partnerships, citizen camera registries, and private-camera integration platforms.
- Cell-site simulators
- Devices that mimic cell towers to locate or identify nearby mobile phones. They are often called Stingrays, or IMSI catchers after the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number that identifies each phone on a network. Adjacent: communications surveillance outside the visual/sensor core.
- Predictive policing
- Software that forecasts where crime may occur or who may be involved, to direct policing. Adjacent: analytics rather than a sensing deployment.
- Social-media monitoring
- Tools that collect and analyze public social-media activity for an agency. Adjacent: open-source/communications monitoring outside the visual/sensor core.
The record, by operator
New South Wales Police Force
Installed 8 January 2026 and officially launched 19 February 2026 as a six-month trial, PolAir-Remote is described by NSW Police as the first Australian police use of drones piloted without an on-site operator. The system consists of remotely piloted drones housed in a rooftop docking unit at Moree Police Station and flown from a Remote Operations Centre at Bankstown Airport.
Sources: Mirage News, Australia debuts PolAir-Remote in Moree (Feb 2026)Moree Online News, Australian-first policing drone capability launches in Moree (Feb 2026)
As of February 2025 the fleet spans DJI M350, M300, Matrice 30T, Mavic 3T, Avata 2 and Mini 4 aircraft with thermal sensors, used daily for surveillance, search operations and house clearing, with video feeds integrated into PolAir's HD downlink for event monitoring and crowd management. Separate from the PolAir-Remote docked-drone trial, Aviation Command has flown remotely piloted aircraft since a 2016 pilot that trained seven pilots on DJI Inspire aircraft.
Sources: Vertical Mag, inside the NSWPF Aviation Command (Feb 2025)iTnews, inside NSW Police's drone experiment (Mar 2016)
In February 2025 the force disabled the Cognitec algorithm it had run since 2011, after 2024 NIST testing showed markedly higher misidentification rates for West African faces, and continues to run NYX, an algorithm built on the open-source FaceNet model adopted in 2018. The Facial Recognition Unit reported more than 560 leads generated in the 2023-24 financial year. The PhotoTrac Suspect Identification System has used facial recognition since 2011 to compare charge photographs and other images against internal databases, generating investigative leads.
Sources: Biometric Update, NSW Police abandons Cognitec facial recognition (Apr 2025)Biometric Update, NSW Police face questions on 2011-era algorithm (Nov 2025)
A 2024 Mobile ANPR Full Solution tender sought a vendor to extend and modernise the capability across more of the fleet. As of mid-2024 the mobile fleet remained small, with 4 infrared ANPR cameras fitted to Highway Patrol vehicles. Fixed and mobile automatic number plate recognition has been in use since the state's first fixed-camera pilot in 2005, with a mobile (MANPR) rollout beginning in 2009.
Sources: SEN.news, NSW Police Force seeks MANPR (Jun 2024)NSW Police Force tender YR-2023-0001, Integrated Connected Officer (via Australian Tenders)Australian Privacy Foundation, ANPR policy analysis
Body-worn video has been issued since a September 2015 rollout that began with 267 cameras across 16 commands under a $4 million allocation, growing to roughly 4,000 cameras by September 2016 on a Fujitsu-built system with wifi streaming and palm-vein officer authentication. Activation remains at officer discretion in most encounters. Highway Patrol vehicles separately run continuously looping in-car video that keeps a rolling 30-second buffer once emergency lights are activated.
Sources: iTnews, NSW Police starts rolling out body-worn cameras (Sep 2015)IoT Hub, how NSW Police's body-worn video system was built (Sep 2016)NSW Police Force, body worn video
City of Sydney Street Safety Camera Program
The council's Street Safety Camera Program operates 106 cameras across the CBD, Kings Cross, Surry Hills, Glebe and Woolloomooloo, monitored 24 hours a day from a Town Hall control centre, with live footage transferable to NSW Police. Recordings are retained for 28 days. An independent audit committee that includes civil liberties advocates oversees the program's Code of Practice.
Sydney Trains (Rail Operations Centre)
Since September 2021 the network has run AI analytics over camera feeds to detect trespassers in tunnels and on tracks. Sydney Trains manages more than 13,000 CCTV cameras across about 300 stations through a Genetec Security Center platform, coordinated from a 2,000 square metre Rail Operations Centre in Alexandria used by more than 1,000 staff.
Sources: SEN.news, Sydney Trains Rail Operations Centre (Sep 2021)iTnews, Sydney Trains runs AI over CCTV footage (2021)
Transport for NSW point-to-point camera network
From 1 July 2025 two regional trial sites on the Pacific and Hume Highways began enforcing against light vehicles as well, running through 30 June 2026. The network has enforced heavy vehicle average speeds since 2011. Transport for NSW operates a statewide fixed point-to-point average speed camera network at roughly 32 to 35 roadway lengths, using number plate recognition to match vehicles between camera pairs.
Sources: NSW Government ministerial release, average speed cameras trial (Jun 2025)
Source: the public record. Australian police-force and government publications, regulator decisions, and Victorian Government open data (Road Safety Camera Network dataset); per-entry citations on each record · retrieved July 2026