Enforcement powers of police and parking wardens
Overview
The main traffic legislation, the Land Transport Act 1998, gives police officers a range of traffic enforcement powers.
Those powers also extend to certain other traffic enforcement staff who come within the definition of “enforcement officer”, the term used by the Land Transport Act (see below). The various powers explained in the section below, “Police: Their traffic enforcement powers” also apply to those other officers.
“Enforcement officers” include:
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- police officers
- other police employees authorised by the Police Commissioner to be enforcement officers, and other people appointed to the role by the Commissioner (they can be appointed for specific purposes only – for example, the local council transport staff who are appointed as official ticket inspectors with the fare evasion powers in the Land Transport Act. See in this chapter “Riding buses and trains without paying: ‘Fare evasion’”
- employees of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) appointed as enforcement officers for certain purposes, such as enforcing rules about driving hours and logbooks.
Note: Parking wardens aren’t “enforcement officers”. Parking wardens have a specific set of powers (see below, “Parking wardens: Their powers”).
