Police File on John Banks Investigation

Joshua Grainger made this Official Information Act request to New Zealand Police

The request was partially successful.

From: Joshua Grainger

1 August 2012

Dear New Zealand Police,

According to a letter from the New Zealand Police posted by Trevor
Mallard the file regarding the investigation into John Bank's
mayoral election return is now closed
(http://blog.labour.org.nz/wp-content/upl...).

I would like to request under the Official Information Act a copy
of this file.

If any withholding provisions under the OIA apply, I would prefer
that partial deletion of information takes place rather than
withholding the whole file.

Feel free to contact me if you want me to clarify my request. I
would prefer to receive an electronic response. Queries about this
request will be automatically forwarded to me by the fyi.org.nz
website.

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Grainger

Link to this

From: VAN BEYNEN, Quirinus (Ray)
New Zealand Police

19 August 2012

Joshua, please contact me for a couple of points of clarification with
your request.

 

Ray

 

QMJ (Ray) Van Beynen

Detective Superintendent

Deputy Director

Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand

 +64 4 463 4408  |  Extn: 44608  |  [mobile number]

 

===============================================================

WARNING

The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.

Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

 

Link to this

From: Joshua Grainger

22 August 2012

Dear VAN BEYNEN, Quirinus (Ray),

Thanks Ray. Will give you a ring tomorrow afternoon to clarify the
request.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Grainger

Link to this

From: Joshua Grainger

2 September 2012

Dear New Zealand Police,

According to the Ombudsmen's Calculator, the deadline for
responding to my request expired on the 30th of August. Can I
please have an update on the status of my request?

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Grainger

Link to this

Joshua Grainger left an annotation ( 2 September 2012)

It should be noted that the clarification phone call was related to another request I had pending with the police (this one: http://fyi.org.nz/request/organized_crim...). It seems that they just sent it to the wrong email.

Link to this

New Zealand Police

2 September 2012

Dear Joshua

I've forwarded your enquiry to the appropriate department.

Kind regards

PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM
NZ POLICE
-----Joshua Grainger <[FOI #470 email]> wrote:
-----

To: OIA requests at New Zealand Police <[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: Joshua Grainger <[FOI #470 email]>
Date: 02/09/2012 10:10PM
Subject: Re: Official Information Act request - Police File on John
Banks Investigation

     Dear New Zealand Police,
    
     According to the Ombudsmen's Calculator, the deadline for
     responding to my request expired on the 30th of August. Can I
     please have an update on the status of my request?
    
     Yours faithfully,
    
     Joshua Grainger
    
    
    
     -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
     [FOI #470 email]
    
     Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
     published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
     [1]http://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
    
     If you find this service useful as an OIA officer, please ask your
     web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
    
    

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

4 September 2012

Dear Mr Grainger

I refer to your request of 1 August 2012 for the file of the investigation
into John Banks' mayoral election returns.

 

Police will require until 20 September 2012 to provide a reply. I
apologise for this delay and for failing to notify you of the extension
within the time allowed for under the Official Information Act.

 

You have the right to complain to the Ombudsman about the delay in
responding to your request.

 

Teresa McMahon

Police National Headquarters

Wellington

 

===============================================================

WARNING

The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.

Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

 

Link to this

From: Joshua Grainger

4 September 2012

Dear MCMAHON, Teresa,

May I ask under which ground such an extension is required? The
Official Information Act only grants the power to extend the
statutory deadline in two sitautions:

s15A(1)(a): "the request is for a large quantity of official
information or necessitates a search through a large quantity of
information and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably
interfere with the operations of the department or the Minister of
the Crown or the organisation"
s15A(1)(b): "consultations necessary to make a decision on the
request are such that a proper response to the request cannot
reasonably be made within the original time limit."

It is not specified in your response which of these two factors was
the reason for the extention of the time limit, which is required
under s15A(4)(b): "The notice effecting the extension shall...give
the reasons for the extension".

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Grainger

Link to this

From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

4 September 2012

Dear Mr Grainger
The grounds for the extension, which is not made pursuant to the Act because it is outside the statutory timeframe, are: the time required to search and collate the information and the consultations required to make a decision on the request.
Teresa McMahon

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

12 September 2012

Attachment Docs for disclosure.pdf
7.9M Download View as HTML

Attachment Ltr Joshua Grainger.pdf
516K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Grainger

I have been asked to send you the attached response to your information
request.

 

Teresa McMahon

Police National Headquarters

Wellington

 

===============================================================

WARNING

The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.

Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

 

Link to this

From: Joshua Grainger

12 September 2012

Dear MCMAHON, Teresa,

Thank you very much for your reply. Given the strong privacy
interests I was frankly surprised to get anything at all. I can
also see given the amount of information why the delay occurred - I
imagine it would take quite a while to assess at least 1183 pages
of info!

I do have one request though: would it be possible to receive the
titles of the documents that have been withheld in full? If the
titles contain information that would be protected, such as the
names of witnesses, it would be fine to redact that information,
such as "Witness Statement of ████████████."

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Grainger

Link to this

From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

12 September 2012

Dear Mr Grainger
Police are considering your further request and will be respond in due course.
Teresa McMahon

===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

Link to this

From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police

11 October 2012

Attachment grainger Joshua 12 143 7 reply.pdf
0K Download View as HTML

Attachment grainger Joshua 12 143 7 attachment.pdf
0K Download View as HTML

 

===============================================================

WARNING

The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.

Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

 

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
New Zealand Police only: