Auckland
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
Auckland Transport operated approximately 2,763 CCTV cameras as of August 2019 under a NZ$4.5 million camera-network expansion plan, with a stated three-year forecast of about 5,200 cameras. The plan included giving Police real-time access to Auckland Transport's camera feeds for the first time, and new cameras installed under it included automated processing capabilities such as facial recognition. Auckland Transport has stated that the cameras are not used for facial recognition, and that its memorandum of understanding with Police did not mention it.
Sources: RNZ, Auckland Transport's $4.5m plan could mean 8000 cameras watching the city (12 Aug 2019)
Source: the public record. New Zealand Police and government publications, council tenders, and council Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) responses; per-entry citations on each record · retrieved July 2026