Before you make a request to Police

• Do not ask for information about yourself. We do not allow users to make requests about themselves. Instead, use the Request for Personal Information online form on the Police website. If you ignore this instruction, your request here may be hidden.
• Check if the information is already online. Here are some useful resources:
  • Police' Publications & Statistics pages have many Police documents: policies, manual chapters, reports, data &l statistics.
  • NZ Police Policy Directory is a volunteer effort to collect all Police policies, including old versions, in one place from OIA requests and other sources.
  • Police advice to the Minister is listed by title. To request a copy of this advice, make your request to the Minister of Police.

Things Police might ask

• Police often ask for proof of eligibility to make an OIA request. They are allowed to ask this. Usually they will want some identification.
  • Please state that you reside in New Zealand, if that is true. It is our hope that in time making this statement will be considered sufficient.
  • Please do not send your contact information using FYI.org.nz as it will automatically be published. If you already have, contact us and we will hide it for you.
• You do not have to fill out another form. If Police respond with a link to another form to fill in, you do not need to do so. Politely remind them that by law they must accept requests in any form. If necessary, point them to the Ombudsman guidance which specifically confirms that requests sent through FYI.org.nz must be accepted.

Contact outside of FYI.org.nz

Note that we do not share your user details with Police. If you are contacted outside FYI.org.nz, please:

• Discuss your request with them if you feel comfortable doing so. If not, you may ask for correspondence to be through FYI.org.nz.
• Note in an annotation that you were contacted. Summarise the discussion if possible.
• Regardless, insist that the formal OIA response be sent to you through FYI.org.nz, to the fyi.org.nz email address from which the original request was sent (see below).

Response received outside of FYI.org.nz

If you have received your response outside the FYI.org.nz system (such as by direct email or post), the response will not be published - which may be intentional. You may:

• Reply to them asking that they re-send the response to the fyi.org.nz email address of the original request. We can provide this if they have lost it. Under OIA s16(2) they must usually provide the response in the way you prefer.
• Let us know in a comment that you received your response bypassing FYI.org.nz.