95bFM Concerns over automated parking ticket system, lack of transparency
7 November, 2025
Interview by Alex Fox, adapted by Vihan Dalal
Auckland’s automated parking ticket system had clocked in half-a-million tickets last year, but the University of Auckland’s Mohsen Mohammadzadeh has raised concerns over the monetisation of non-compliance.
Concerns have been raised over the new automatic parking ticket systems, with an expert dubbing it a “commodification of non-compliance.”
Auckland Transport introduced Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) vehicles in 2019, with only two vehicles in their fleet. The fleet has grown to 25 vehicles to date, operating between Pukekohe and Wellsford, Auckland Transport’s Parking Services Manager John Strawbridge told RNZ.
Although these vehicles are supposed to reduce the risk of violence to parking officers, senior lecturer of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh told 95bFM’s The Wire that the revenue earned through ANPR makes for an extra revenue stream, due to non-compliance.
“So, in that case, they can make more money. So, they can easily make more revenue, and it will be part of the budget anyway. It's a kind of the commodification of the problem, I can say, or commodification of the non-compliance and punishing people in a different way.”
Mohammadzadeh also explains that although the ANPR is meant to reduce tensions between the parking officers and people, the system will reduce hiring costs associated with parking officers.
Over half-a-million tickets were given out by the ANPR last year, which was double the number of tickets from 2024, according to RNZ. Mohammadzadeh says people weren’t consulted or informed on how this system would work.
“It's kind of the wrong approach. So, people, they should know how the system is working, how their data is collected, how they are punished and what kind of revenue is made through the process by the local government or any authorities here. Lack of transparency, lack of consultation is, I think, the main concern here.”
He says that the commodification of non-compliance can be avoided by human interaction, as people can communicate with parking officers to solve a problem, as opposed to being ticketed by an automated system.
“But when you are using this type of technology, and you are not fully aware about this, there is no place for people to communicate with the system easily.”
Mohammadzadeh says the public needs to be consulted before introducing such systems, and that the lack of trust instilled amongst the public through these systems could be an additional cost to the government.
