Police want to switch on number plate search in three of Winton's council-owned CCTV cameras, and the Ōreti Community Board will be asked on Tuesday to back a change to the council's agreement with Police, which currently forbids it.
A report to the board's 17 November meeting by Southland District Council's community leadership manager recommends that the board endorse the proposed response to the Police request. It also makes clear the change would not stop at Winton: the amended rules "could apply to any existing or future Council owned CCTV network covered by the MOU", the memorandum of understanding between the council and Police.
Winton's upgraded network has 19 cameras at six sites around the town. Three of them can read number plates automatically, but that function is turned off.
When the board backed the network, it agreed automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) would not be enabled because of privacy concerns. The council also made a ban on ANPR a condition of giving Police direct access to its CCTV systems. Clause 26 of the agreement reads: "Automatic biometric identification and automatic number plate recognition technology will not be used with the CCTV system."
In a letter to the board dated 10 August, the area response manager for Western Southland Police said the cameras had helped investigations and contributed to holding offenders to account. Police asked for the plate-reading function to be activated without the full link to Police systems and databases, saying it would help officers who now have to go through footage by hand.
Staff describe what is proposed as a limited version. Searches would be made only of recorded footage, after a specific incident, for a set plate and time period. There would be no live monitoring, alerts, watchlists, tracking of vehicles between cameras, or connection to Police or other databases. Staff say the privacy impact is "materially lower" than a full ANPR system, and the agreement would still ban full ANPR.
The report rates the decision as being of "some importance" rather than significant under the council's engagement policy. It also says there is "higher public interest in this matter with potential for the decision to be controversial".
The report is not consistent on how far the change would reach. One section says the changes "could apply" to other council networks; another says the request "would apply to all existing and future Council supported CCTV networks". Staff argue that the district-wide reach lowers the overall significance, because the matter is mainly about governance and operational arrangements.
Staff also acknowledge that "community views on the proposed change have not yet been specifically sought". They say they may carry out targeted engagement with directly interested groups before the agreement is finalised. The report says members of the public, Police, the Winton Business Association and the Winton Promotions Group all backed the network when it was set up and expanded.
Among the downsides of going ahead, the report lists privacy and public perception concerns, extra oversight, "reputational risk" and the "potential for the functionality to be viewed as a precursor to ANPR technology". It rates the risks as moderate, and says they can be managed through clear communication, advice from the council's privacy officers and a legal review of the amended agreement.
Saying no would keep the current privacy protections and avoid public concern about the technology, the report says, but would limit Police investigations involving vehicles.
If the board agrees, staff will keep talking with Police and carry out privacy, legal and operational reviews. Changes to the agreement would then go ahead "under existing delegations", the report says. Any searches would still have to comply with the Privacy Act 2020. No new cameras, equipment or software would be needed, and staff expect costs to be minor.
The board meets at 5.30pm on Tuesday 17 November in the Winton Memorial Hall supper room.
The Herald has asked Southland District Council for comment.
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