Mass surveillance in New Zealand

There is an estimated 400,000 privately owned and 10,000 publicly owned security cameras in New Zealand.^[1] They are primarily used for security, but are also used for monitoring traffic, weather, dumping, and parking, among others. Taxpayers pay approximately $5.4 million per year on the running costs of security cameras, and for the five years prior to 2022, spent $29.8 million on installation costs. At least three councils use facial recognition.^[2] The police have access to over 5,000 cameras owned by businesses, councils and government agencies, which can be accessed by 4,000 police officers on their smartphones.^[3] The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service is responsible for human intelligence collection in New Zealand.^[4]

In 2022 RNZ sent out over 100 Official Information Act requests in an attempt to map the amount of security cameras throughout the country. CCTV cameras have been criticised following research suggesting that they do not lower rates of crime.^[2] There is also use of artificial intelligence within the CCTV networks of New Zealand.^[5]