Photo: 123RF
Police have been told public trust is on the line over getting technology in place to find and delete all the photos of people they should not have stored.
The lack of tech is standing in the way of police fully dealing with pictures officers gathered unlawfully for years.
The privacy commissioner said police had held up a digital evidence management system as a solution.
"We are concerned that investment in such a system has not proceeded," Michael Webster said on Thursday.
It was "fundamental to public trust and confidence" to resolve this, he said in a statement.
But police said not only do they lack the funding for it, but that installing "a solution of this size and scale is not achievable without impacting frontline operations ... and [it] would also have implications for police's core intelligence system".
RNZ revealed in July that police had to delay introducing a digital evidence system needed due to lack of money.
The tech was the "one critical step" remaining among the 16 that the commissioner imposed in 2022, after RNZ exposed that police were routinely storing photos, of young Māori in particular, across smartphones and multiple systems, without proper cause, authorisation, policy or training.
Police missed a mid-2024 deadline for fixing the problem of being able to identify and delete all the pictures.
Resolving this "will be fundamental to public trust and confidence in police use of personal information and their ability to turn it into actionable intelligence that helps keep communities safer", Webster said.
The police's latest compliance update said a digital evidence system would manage the collection, use, storage and deletion of photographs, and associated auditing and monitoring, "but would have required major new investment".
"While such a digital evidence system has been deferred, police continues to regularly consider any potential opportunities to use current technology to support improved practice in an incremental move towards compliance."
The update also said work had begun on developing guidance to officers to think about how or if they could use the photos of people they already had stored, to make sure it was lawful.
Police said in a statement they were continuing to explore options to address this requirement.
"Exploratory work is underway with the Chief Information Officer and police's information capability team to develop a process to meet the requirement."
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