Detectives are investigating cab-mounted cameras in commercial trucks to try to find the person who shot dead at Aitiamuri road worker last week
Police said security footage from cameras attached to some trucks that were in the area at the time may hold information that could help identify Mr George Taiaroa’s murderer.
However, it may already be too late from a technical perspective.
Haydn Bowbyes of In Vehicle Camera Systems (IVCS) says: “In such instances as this (shooting) police need to respond more quickly and get to the trucking companies that operate on these roads to get their stand alone recording data.
“They really need to do be doing that straight away, and not a week after the event, after the data is likely to have been overwritten.”
Bowbyes says in vehicle camera systems typically record on to an SD or Flash, with the size of the storage device largely dictating how long a recording will stored for. A small SD card will likely be overwritten pretty quickly while a Flash device will store more, hence it’s likely to be stored for longer.
A team of 30 police officers are also still identifying everyone who travelled over the one-lane bridge on Tram Rd, where Mr Taiaroa was killed last Tuesday, including the driver of a “two-tone green vehicle” which came nose-to-nose with a tractor on the bridge and had to reverse due to a miscommunication at traffic control.
As well as investigating possible security footage from trucks that were in the area, police will also speak with nearby rural residents who may have “cameras installed to help protect their properties”.
Anyone with information should call police on 0800 Kingswood (0800 546 479) or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
