iSAYSO
Official Information Act request – Parliament 2022, LRAD, surveillance technology and post-protest capability
To New Zealand Police and Parliamentary Service,
I request the following recorded information under the Official Information Act 1982 concerning the 2022 Parliament protest and any subsequent development of public-order, surveillance, intelligence or protective technology.
This request is intended to identify the technology used, the authority for its use, what data was collected, where that data went, what lessons were taken from the Parliament protest, and what additional capabilities were subsequently acquired, trialled or considered.
– LRAD equipment and procurement
Please provide records identifying:
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every Long Range Acoustic Device / LRAD owned, leased, borrowed or otherwise available for use by Police during the 2022 Parliament protest;
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manufacturer, model and technical specifications;
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purchase or acquisition date;
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supplier, importer or contractor;
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purchase price and total procurement cost;
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maximum acoustic output and available operating modes;
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user manuals, operating guidance and safety information held by Police;
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health and safety assessments concerning human exposure;
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training material supplied to operators;
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any contractual warranty, indemnity or liability provisions relevant to injury or misuse.
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Parliament protest deployment
For each LRAD deployed during the Parliament protest, please provide:
11. date and time of deployment;
12. position or rank of the person who authorised deployment;
13. any written operational authorisation;
14. operator log;
15. mode or function used, including whether voice, warning tone, deterrent tone, aversion tone or other acoustic function was activated;
16. recorded output setting or volume;
17. duration and number of activations;
18. estimated distance between the device and persons exposed;
19. any TENR or other tactical assessment relating to deployment;
20. any warning provided before use;
21. any health or safety officer advice;
22. reports of hearing effects, pain, injury or other adverse effects;
23. complaints received concerning LRAD use;
24. post-operation review or lessons-learned material.
– What changed after Parliament?
Please provide all records from 2 March 2022 to the present identifying lessons, recommendations or capability gaps arising from the Parliament protest concerning:
25. public-order equipment;
26. crowd-control technology;
27. officer-protection technology;
28. surveillance;
29. intelligence gathering;
30. drones or unmanned aircraft;
31. automated number-plate recognition;
32. facial recognition;
33. biometric identification;
34. social-media monitoring or analytics;
35. AI or machine-learning systems;
36. automated object, person, vehicle or behaviour recognition;
37. crowd analytics;
38. automated risk scoring or profiling;
39. device or telecommunications-related identification or tracking;
40. acoustic systems.
Please identify which recommendations were implemented, rejected or remain under consideration.
– Domestic protest and Parliament use
Please provide any current or former policy, legal advice, memorandum, protocol, standard operating procedure or operational guidance addressing whether the technologies identified above may be used in connection with protests, demonstrations, occupations, civil disorder, public-order incidents, protection of Parliament, or protection of Ministers, MPs or officials.
For each relevant technology, please identify the legal authority, approval threshold and decision-maker required before use.
– Data – what is collected?
For each relevant system, please identify whether it is technically capable of collecting, generating, deriving, matching or recording photographs, video, facial images/templates, biometric information, vehicle registration information, location/movement information, device identifiers, mobile-phone related information, communications metadata, wireless/radiofrequency information, social-media information, behavioural information, relationship/network information, or automated alerts/classifications/profiles.
Please distinguish between:
(a) what the technology is technically capable of doing; and
(b) what Police or Parliamentary Service currently authorise it to be used for.
– Where does the information go?
Please provide system diagrams, privacy impact assessments, data-flow documents, contracts or other records identifying where information is stored; whether storage or processing occurs outside New Zealand; which Police units, Parliamentary Service units, other government agencies, contractors, suppliers or cloud providers can access or receive it; whether information collected for one purpose may later be used for another; retention periods; deletion requirements; audit logging; and correction mechanisms for inaccurate information.
– Tracking and identification capability
Please identify whether any relevant system can identify an individual from an image; recognise the same unidentified individual across multiple images; follow a person or vehicle across cameras; associate a person with a vehicle; associate a device with a person; construct movement histories; generate an alert when a specified person, vehicle, plate or device appears; automatically compare information with another government database; or generate automated risk flags or recommendations.
Where such capabilities exist, please identify what human verification is required before enforcement action is taken.
– Costs and money pathway
For each system, please provide purchase price, implementation cost, annual licence fees, maintenance charges, cloud/data-storage costs, contractor payments, training costs, upgrade costs, total expenditure to date and forecast future expenditure.
Please also provide any business case or cost-benefit analysis identifying claimed savings, productivity gains, avoided staffing costs, enforcement revenue, fines/infringement revenue, recoveries or other measurable financial benefit.
– Contractors and decision-makers
For every private supplier or contractor materially involved, please identify the company name, contract value, procurement method, responsible approving official, contract manager, data-access rights, subcontractors, whether the supplier may retain/reuse/analyse government data, whether supplier systems may use government data to improve algorithms or products, and relevant conflict-of-interest declarations held by the agency.
– Records and transfer
Please preserve records relating to the 2022 Parliament protest, LRAD deployment, post-protest technology reviews and subsequent capability development pending completion of this request and any review by the Ombudsman.
If requested information is not held, please state that expressly and identify the agency believed to hold it.
Please transfer relevant parts under section 14 where appropriate.
If information is withheld, please identify the precise statutory withholding ground relied upon for each category withheld.
We are seeking records capable of establishing the chain of authority, technological capability, data pathway, financial pathway and safeguards.
We are not asking the agency merely to describe its policy position.
Regards,
Tracy Lynch
FARQ /
We Review the Crown
isayso.net