Source: Radio New Zealand
The Safer Places Network was developed to help police identify security cameras across the country. (File photo) Unsplash/ Alan J Hendry
The founder of a CCTV register in Australia says a similar scheme in New Zealand may have allowed police to find a young woman much faster than the three months she was missing for.
The Safer Places Network was developed to help police identify and contact the owners of private and commercial security cameras across the country.
It allowed police to view a map of security cameras after a crime had occurred, and message owners to ask if anything was caught on their cameras.
Twenty-five-year-old Te Anihana Pomana was spotted on CCTV in Auckland’s central city three months before her body was found roughly 50km away in dense bush near Pukekohe.
Te Anihana Pomana was seen on CCTV leaving Sky City hotel on August 21. Supplied
She vanished, despite 30 cameras covering Victoria St West, according to Auckland Transport.
Safer Places Network founder and former Australian Federal Police detective David Bartlett said the register would have allowed police to collect CCTV faster.
“That’s a good example of where police can quickly and efficiently send out multiple requests to people in the vicinity and ask them to upload the last 30 minutes of their footage,” he said.
“They might think that there’s nothing of importance on their cameras but there might be a car or there might be a bike, or might be something that’s known to investigators that’s of value.”
Bartlett said about two to five hours were spent looking for CCTV per incident, which made up roughly 70 percent of investigations.
“When you bring that out into a time saving estimate, we bring something that would normally take about four hours down to taking about four minutes,” he said.
“You can see from that that police are already stretched with resources, they can take something out of their day that they no longer have to do.”
The register acts like a rolodex of CCTV cameras, and allowed remote access to businesses and commercial cameras.
Bartlett said he’s in early talks with New Zealand police to set up the register here.
“It’s early days, haven’t committed to anything yet, but they’ve been very, very open which is nice to hear.
“The infrastructure is ready to go, it’s ready to be used in New Zealand, we just need some backing from the police and obviously need the backing from the community.”
He said people in Australia had been surprisingly open to sign-up to the register.
“We don’t collect credentials or passwords, we do not have a direct link to people’s cameras, but we’ve got about 23,000 registered cameras now across the country.”
That was a mix of commercial and residential cameras, he said.
He wanted to reassure the public they had no intention of asking for remote access into personal home cameras.
“That’s not on our agenda at all,” Bartlett said.
Auckland Transport said it had over 1300 CCTV cameras in the Auckland Central area, and more than 5600 across the city.
Auckland Transport said it had over 1300 CCTV cameras in Auckland Central. (File photo) Unsplash/ Johny Goh
However, while police’s Matt Tierney confirmed in a statement they had met with the Safer Places Network, he said there were no current plans to implement a CCTV register in New Zealand through the company.
“Technology is a critical part of modern policing, and we regularly look at potential or new products that may be able to support our work and enhance community safety.”
Bartlett hoped something could be set up in New Zealand early in 2026.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
