An independent analysis of police breath testing data found more than 42,000 "irregular" breath tests — 12,000 more than initially believed.
RNZ revealed last year that about 130 police officers were under investigation throughout the country after 30,000 alcohol breath tests were "falsely or erroneously recorded".
Following RNZ's reporting the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) halted $12 million worth of funding until it was satisfied police had met their breath test targets.
NZTA commissioned an independent analysis of breath testing data to try and identify the full scale of falsely recorded tests.
That report, by WSP, was released by NZTA on Friday.
The report said the independent analysis initially identified a total of up to 111,000 "unique anomalous tests" between July 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025.
These tests were identified through two methodologies.
The report said police advised they did not support all the findings from the analysis, due to the analysis being based on "incorrect assumptions".
"As many of the identified irregular tests could be explained as legitimate operational activity."
Police voiced concern with one of the methodologies used that analysed short time interval clustered tests.
"This methodology aimed to identify tests undertaken on a single device at a faster rate than it would be possible to process drivers through a legitimate checkpoint operation, which may indicate that the tests were not performed on actual drivers," the report said.
However, police said it was possible for an efficent checkpoint to operate at a rate of less than 20 seconds between drivers. WSP then removed this methodology from its final report and irregular test count.
A further review of the data found there were a total of 42,678 irregular breath tests.
An NZTA spokesperson told RNZ police had met their targets.
"With the irregular breath tests removed from reporting, a total of 3,178,981 breath screening tests were conducted by police for the period covering Q1-Q3 of the 2025/26 financial year [July 1 2025 to March 31 2026], exceeding the financial year to date target of 2,475,000 by 703,981 [28% above target]."
The agency had authorised $18 million of funding to police.
"NZTA is continuing to work with NZ Police to ensure ongoing confidence in reporting of road policing activity through the Road Policing Investment Programme (RPIP)," the spokesperson said.
Police have been approached for comment.
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
