To track the women who sent Northland into a snap lockdown last year, police may have illegally registered one of their cars as stolen so they could access CCTV footage.
Police insist everything was above board, but the minister in charge has asked for an explanation.
On October 8 last year, Northland was plunged into lockdown after a trio of travelling women hopped Auckland's border, and with them, a positive Delta case.
It appears police may have illegally gained access to CCTV software in order to locate them.
"[It's] obviously something that's being looked into," Police Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Documents obtained by Newshub show police identified a number of vehicles one of the women was most likely in possession of and operating. A detective then writes they entered a stolen alert on two of the cars, even though they weren't, in case they were sighted by police or CCTV capable of number plate recognition.
"It's obviously concerning. I think there's a very big chance that it's illegal under the Privacy Act," said lawyer Graeme Edgeler.
Greens police spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said it's "potentially illegal".
"New Zealand deserves better than a police force that's willing to be dishonest and to break the law in order to further its own interest," she said.
Hipkins said it was a "really challenging situation".
"The police I think were doing, were working really hard to try and identify where the women were," he said.
Working really hard to find them because the Government put Northland into lockdown because of them.
Police say falsely lodging the cars are stolen was lawful.
"They weren't lying. The car was entered as stolen because it provided the best means of being able to locate that vehicle," said Dave Lynch, the Acting Assistant Commissioner, Investigations.
"I am confident that in the circumstances that existed at the time that the police had the appropriate authority to be able to use whatever means necessary to track that vehicle."
Hipkins spoke to the Police Commissioner this morning, asking for a please explain.
"They'll be looking now to make sure, to identify whether the right approach was used or whether someone's made mistake," the minister said.
To make matters worse, there's actually an air-tight legal way police could've accessed the recognition CCTV software instead. They have emergency powers under the Search and Surveillance Act.
One of the intelligence firms told Newshub they still would've given police access to the footage if they'd just asked properly. They've now offered follow-up training for our boys in blue.
