Reference: IR-01-22-20768
29 July 2022
Will Maynard
V
ia [FYI request #19939 email]
Tēnā koe Will
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 request dated 17 July 2022, in which
you asked for information regarding facial recognition technology.
My response to each of your questions can be found below.
Is NZ police using any facial recognition anywhere?
Yes, Police does use facial recognition technology, but not live facial recognition
technology. A detailed list of New Zealand Police Technology capabilities can be found
on the Police web site here
- Technology capabilities list. The tools containing our facial
recognition capability are covered in that document on the fol owing pages:
• ABIS2 (page 25)
• BriefCam (page 28)
• Cellebrite Pathfinder (page 30)
• Griffeye Analysis Core (page 32)
• Image Management System – Photo Manager (page 34)
Furthermore, in 2021, Police commissioned an independent report into considerations
for use of facial recognition in Policing and that report is published in ful her
e: Facial
recognition technology | Police use of emergent technologies | New Zealand Police
Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Telephone: 04 474 9499. Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz
Is NZ police aware of any upcoming plans to trial or introduce permanent facial
recognition like Australia, England etc?
I have taken this question to mean ‘Is New Zealand police aware of any upcoming
plans for New Zealand Police to trial or introduce ‘live’ facial recognition’ AND ‘Is New
Zealand police aware of any upcoming plans within New Zealand to trial or introduce
‘live’ facial recognition on permanent cameras’
Police does not use any form of ‘live’ facial recognition technology such as real-time
scanning of CCTV feeds and there are no current plans or proposals to do so. See
page 29 of t
he Technology capabilities list for more information on CCTV feeds.
The ABIS2 facial recognition system currently in use enables Police to compare stil
images of unidentified suspects, where those images have been submitted as part of
an investigation. It is not used in the analysis of any livestream or live surveil ance
footage, and live footage cannot feed directly into the system.
The other tools listed above are also only used to analyse photos and videos submitted
as part of an investigation after the photos/videos have been captured.
Police is aware (from information in the public domain) of retail sector use of live FRT
use in New Zealand – see section 3.6 of the 2021 repor
t FRT- Considerations for Use
in Policing.
Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police
proactively releases some information and documents that may be of interest to the
public. Therefore, an anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on
the Police website.
Nāku noa, nā
Carla Gilmore
Manager – Emergent Technology
New Zealand Police
Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Telephone: 04 474 9499. Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz
