Important notes before making a request to Police

• You do not have to fill out another form. If Police respond with a link to another form to fill in, do not fill in that form. 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.
• Do not ask for information about yourself. These are against our policies. Instead, use the Request for Personal Information online form on the Police website. If you ignore this instruction, your request here may be hidden.
• Police often ask for proof of eligibility to make an OIA request.
  • 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 may have to contact the Police by email or phone to confirm your eligibility.

Contacted directly by Police about your request?

Note that we do not share your contact 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 directly?

If you have received your response outside the FYI.org.nz system (such as by direct email or post), the response will not be published - which may be intentional.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) you can usually insist on this.
• Let us know in a comment that you received your response bypassing FYI.org.nz.