First of its kind, high-tech Halo camera will only target traffic speed - for now

Our national network of traffic cameras is being taken from police to be run by NZTA, the road safety agency. As David Fisher reports, the agency has been warned that it must win the trust of communities before rolling out its increasingly intrusive technology. It’s advice NZTA is following in Northland, where it has just turned on the first of a new wave of advanced technology cameras that can read number plates and scan body heat.

For years, Taumatamakuku was a village so small that those travelling State Highway 1 in Northland could easily have missed it.

Now, those who speed through the tiny village will get a ticket in the post, courtesy of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s (NZTA) first functional traffic camera.

But that’s the extent of the enforcement because the new camera will operate at just a fraction of its capabilities - something NZTA considers a critical step in gaining community support.

The camera can recognise number plates automatically. NZTA has cameras that can identify whether drivers are wearing seatbelts or are talking on the phone - and complete thermal imaging of the car’s occupants.

And here in Taumatamakuku, between Kawakawa and Moerewa in Northland, it is all about the speed on a long, flat section of road that has seen fatal crash after fatal crash over the years.

The camera’s installation has become controversial on community Facebook groups. Locals were worried tickets would be issued to those driving vehicles without a warrant of fitness (WoF) or registrations, common practice in a part of the country where people struggle to even put petrol in the tank. As it stands, NZTA can’t legally target registrations or WoF with the cameras.

But even those things that are possible under existing laws are not all being used.

“One thing we took into consideration was that we live in a low socio-economic community. The issue has never been about warrants. It has always been about speed,” said Roddy Hapati-Pihema, the chairman of the Taumatamakuku Community Residents Representative Committee.

Roddy Hapati-Pihema, chairman of the Taumatamakuku Community Residents Representative Committee. Photo / David Fisher

“We were always the ones who would have to get out of our beds early in the morning - along here the amount of death is huge.

“You get there and there are limbs scattered across the road. We’re the ones holding their hands as they die. We’re the ones who have to speak to their families.”

‘First safety camera’

It’s not just the first time this new camera technology has been made operational on New Zealand’s highways.

It’s also NZTA’s first safety camera site - at a time when the agency is moving into its new role as custodian of the country’s traffic camera network.

It is in the process of taking over the existing network of about 150 cameras operated by police with a stated plan to increase the number to 800 separate camera sites on state highways by 2030.

The road safety agency is currently investigating which camera capabilities it will use - and what it will do with the data it collects.

The Privacy Impact Assessment carried out for NZTA said new traffic cameras could measure speed over distance, use thermal scanning on vehicle occupants, automatically read and transmit number plate data and map the outline of vehicles including colour, vehicle type, length and axle.

Discussions were also under way with police over the number plate and other data the new cameras automatically collected - although not the camera at Taumatamakuku, which does not have this function switched on.

The assessment warned the agency it needed to take people with it on its journey to safer highways.

“Although cameras and recording devices are ubiquitous in our society, these tools are viewed as intrusive and potentially generate emotive commentary alleging unwarranted surveillance systems,” it said.

It told the agency that its “ability to carry out its business is based on the confidence society has that it will behave legitimately, with accountability and in a socially and environmentally responsible way”.

Cautious approval for cameras

Hapati-Pihema, also a Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board member, said some people in neighbouring communities felt frustrated a new camera was being installed and paranoid about what it might be used for.

He said it had been important to tell those people that despite its many capabilities, the new camera was only going to capture those speeding.

NZTA contractors instal the advanced traffic camera in Northland. Photo / David Fisher

“It’s not even a speed camera now. It’s a safety camera. If it saves lives - even one - then it’s worth it.”

Hapati-Pihema said the community needed help to solve an issue with speed but is not inviting intrusion on those not speeding.

“It doesn’t mean we want to see more of these things all over the place. Just because we have given tautoko for this doesn’t mean we gave tautoko for all of them.”

Making the community safer

An NZTA spokeswoman said Taumatamakuku would be a test case for the rest of the country. Testing continued but it would only be weeks before the camera was live and issuing tickets. “We’ve been testing all parts of the system thoroughly so that we can roll out new safety camera technology successfully across the motu,” she said.

“Given we are testing new Halo camera technology, it made sense to test some of its new functions that will be needed in future sites but not required at this site.”

A community effort to improve safety in Taumatamakuku Settlement has paid off with a reduced speed limit, speed bumps and footpaths so children no longer have to walk on the road. Pictured are past and present road safety campaigners, (from left) Miriama Hapati-Pihema, Te Awe Koni, Roddy Hapati-Pihema and Georgina Edmonds. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Transport Minister Simeon Brown’s draft Government Policy Statement on transport was silent on the scale of the networked traffic camera system.

On safety, it said the Government intended to improve the quality of roads to allow recent speed-limit reductions to be reversed “where it is safe to do so”. That could include roads with speed limits to 110km/h, he said.

While the emphasis was on upgrading roads, it also said tougher - or more expensive - enforcement was on the way with tickets and demerit penalties set too low and out of step with comparable countries.

An example in Brown’s plan was seatbelt fines which cost drivers $150 in New Zealand while “bringing our penalties in line with Australia would require nearly tripling the infringement fee”.

David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.