{"id":264801,"date":"2026-02-03T02:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/264801\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T02:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:33:11","slug":"speed-camera-cut-from-its-pole-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/264801\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed camera cut from its pole in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police are investigating after a speed camera was chopped down in northwest Auckland last week.<\/p>\n

The camera on Coatesville\u2013Riverhead Highway, near Wake Road, was damaged around 7.30pm last Thursday. Police said a member of the public was seen cutting down the pole before leaving the scene in a blue 4WD with a canopy.<\/p>\n

Inspector Jason Edwards said officers arrived soon after but the offender had already gone.<\/p>\n

“Police taped off the immediate area, and NZ Transport Agency was advised about the incident,” he said. <\/p>\n

He also reminded motorists that although the camera is out of action, the 60km\/h speed limit remains in place, and police would continue to enforce it.<\/p>\n

The device has generated more than $10 million in fines since the speed limit on the stretch of road was lowered from 80km\/h to 60km\/h in June 2020, according to police data. NZTA took over responsibility for all safety cameras<\/a> in July 2025.<\/p>\n

NZTA confirmed it was organising a replacement unit.<\/p>\n

“Intentional vandalism of NZTA property is a criminal offence, and the action has been reported to NZ Police,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Rodney local board member and road safety campaigner Geoff Upson posted a video to Facebook last week claiming an “upset local” had taken matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

Standing beside the toppled pole, Upson said it appeared to have been sliced through with an angle grinder, describing the device as \u201cthe revenue collector\u201d.<\/p>\n

“Coatesville Riverhead Highway used to be 100, then it was 80, now it\u2019s 60 and a community member, good Samaritan, has removed the revenue collecting camera, so anyway, good news, it\u2019s safe for you to drive 61km\/h on your way to work tomorrow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are investigating after a speed camera was chopped down in northwest Auckland last week. The camera on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-264801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories","16":"tag-transport"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}