A rise in anti-social behaviour has prompted a CCTV spending spree by Auckland Council.
It includes a $2.7 million "security transformation project" to protect sites like Aotea Centre. The council now oversees more than 7500 security cameras across the city.
CCTV cameras cost about $1500 each - the price of keeping a watchful eye over Auckland City.
"Technology is increasingly a valuable way to help to manage security," said Tātaki Auckland Unlimited CEO Nick Hill.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is a council organisation that oversees sites like Aotea Centre and the Auckland Art Gallery.
To protect those sites, documents obtained by Newshub show the council has been rolling out a $2.7 million "security transformation project" which includes a "significant number of new cameras".
"We're aiming to have 1000 cameras in place by the time we finish. It's a project that's run for about three years. We started with about 400 cameras. We're currently sitting at around 850," Hill said.
Eke Panuku, another council organisation that manages a $3 billion portfolio of land and buildings, has also been splashing cash on CCTV. Most of it - over $800,000 in one year - was in 2020.
"It's clear that there is more anti-social behaviour and they're really helpful in understanding what's going on," Hill said.
An additional 2050 cameras monitor Auckland Council sites, such as libraries and community centres.
But that pales in comparison to Auckland Transport's massive collection.
Inside the Auckland Transport Operation Centre they use thousands of CCTV cameras to identify risks on the roads and public areas, and coordinate the response to crashes, breakdowns and storms in real time.
"We have 4500 cameras across our network," said Auckland Transport real-time and response manager Rachel Cara.
The operation centre working alongside Waka Kotahi runs 24/7 and coordinates with police in crisis situations.
"We're feeding real-time information to them around what we're seeing and what's happening and using the information we have to come up with those contingency plans to limit the impact of the disruption," Cara said.
And rest assured facial recognition technology is not used in this surveillance operation.
"No, we don't have facial recognition on our CCTV," Cara said.
"We certainly don't operate at that level," Hill added.
But make no mistake, Big Brother of Tāmaki Makaurau is watching.
