Photo: RNZ / Patrice Allen
The police say they have improved the way they prioritise calls about missing persons.
A review of Cyclone Gabrielle found their system was better than before but still struggled as 8000 calls about missing people flooded in.
Reports came in by phone or online to the police 105 system. This is separate from the standard emergency calls to 111 or 105.
In the end, very few were actually missing, and many people called in to say they were not missing.
But police had to check very carefully.
"Police must be careful that we cross check identities carefully, that people are actually missing, and that we only release information to next of kin, especially due to privacy and public safety requirements," a spokesperson told RNZ.
Since the storm police had improved how their IT system prioritised, or triaged, such calls.
"But there will always need to be a manual element to this process, and there will always be challenges in balancing the critical need for accuracy with the speed expected by members of the public."
They were unable to shed light on a police debrief after Gabrielle, that said the 105 and 111 systems did not integrate properly. Both 105 and 111 shared platforms and computer-aided despatch systems, they said.
The cyclone sparked an "unprecedented" number of 111 calls, but though 105 can pick these up during a surge, "this wasn't required, so it did not occur".