Facebook Video
James Scott made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
New Zealand Police did not have the information requested.
From: James Scott
Dear New Zealand Police,
A video was posted to the New Zealand Police facebook page on November 28 2019.
The video shows vehicles on the Auckland Motorway failing to move out of the way for emergency vehicles under lights and sirens. It is available at the following link.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_f...
This clips in the video appears to be completely scripted by Police. In particular, the very first clip on the video shows a Police vehicle sitting behing the only vehicle on the motorway for some time instead of simply going around it. This is at odds with the advertising strategy which seems to have been to point out that every second responding to an emergency is critical.
Can I please have all documentation related to the commissioning, development, production and upload of the video under the OIA.
Yours faithfully,
JAMES
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Scott
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request
below. Your request is being actioned pursuant to the Act.
Please note, as per section 2 of the Official Information Act 1982 the
three weeks between Christmas Day and 15 January in the following year do
not count as working days. You can expect a response to your request on
or before 16 January 2020.
Kind regards,
Ministerial Services
PNHQ
-----"James Scott" <[FOI #11756 email]> wrote:
-----
To: "OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police"
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: "James Scott" <[FOI #11756 email]>
Date: 28/11/2019 12:56PM
Subject: Official Information request - Facebook Video
Dear New Zealand Police,
A video was posted to the New Zealand Police facebook page on November 28
2019.
The video shows vehicles on the Auckland Motorway failing to move out of
the way for emergency vehicles under lights and sirens. It is available at
the following link.
[1]https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_f...
This clips in the video appears to be completely scripted by Police. In
particular, the very first clip on the video shows a Police vehicle
sitting behing the only vehicle on the motorway for some time instead of
simply going around it. This is at odds with the advertising strategy
which seems to have been to point out that every second responding to an
emergency is critical.
Can I please have all documentation related to the commissioning,
development, production and upload of the video under the OIA.
Yours faithfully,
JAMES
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #11756 email]
Is [New Zealand Police request email] the wrong address for Official
Information requests to New Zealand Police? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[2]https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[3]https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.
show quoted sections
From: James Scott
Dear New Zealand Police,
Please answer my questions.
Yours faithfully,
James Scott
From: James Scott
Dear New Zealand Police,
Yes, I was aware of the additional holidays over summer. However, this response is now well and truly overdue.
Please get the response to me this week.
Yours faithfully,
James Scott
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Scott
I can confirm that the response to your OIA has been compiled and is
currently progressing through our internal review process. Unfortunately
it will not be possible to get the response to you this week.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request.
Kind regards
Ministerial Services
PNHQ
-----"James Scott" <[FOI #11756 email]> wrote:
-----
To: "OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police"
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: "James Scott" <[FOI #11756 email]>
Date: 13/02/2020 10:25AM
Subject: Re: OIA Request Acknowledgement IR-01-19-32477 - Facebook Video
Dear New Zealand Police,
Yes, I was aware of the additional holidays over summer. However, this
response is now well and truly overdue.
Please get the response to me this week.
Yours faithfully,
James Scott
show quoted sections
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Scott
Please find attached our response to your OIA request.
Kind regards
Ministerial Services
PNHQ
===============================================================
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
James Scott left an annotation ()
My thoughts exactly and I do intend to go back to them with these sorts of questions when I have time.
Don't forget I had to chase them up for this, they were around a month or so overdue so the response is pathetic.
Thanks for your comment. Do you mind if I use some of these questions when I write back?
From: James Scott
Dear New Zealand Police,
I am not happy with your response to my OIA request above. You will recall you were overdue when responding to this request with no extension sought and no obvious reason for the delay. I have serious doubts about the veracity of your response.
I would ask that you reconsider the response. When doing so, please remember the OIA is a transparency tool, not a PR tool. You might not have liked my request or the inferences I made, but I am entitled to the information and I am entitled to draw my own conclusions about Police behaviour from the information.
I requested all documentation related to the commissioning, development, production and upload of a video on the Police Facebook page. You assert that there is no recorded information because all of the above was done verbally. I would like to remind Police that information yet to be reduced to writing is still Official Information. I also strongly believe that your response is false on the basis that the video involves F.E.N.Z personnel so there must have been consultation with them and I have also read your own internal police policy surrounding the upload of material to Facebook which would require some written communication with the appropriate social media personnel.
For example,
1. Who edited the video?
2. Who approved the concept, development, production etc?
3. Where did the budget for the video come from?
4. Where are the emails between Police, Fire and Emergency organising the interview?
5. Surely there was some type of communication between the parties. By self-declaration “the filming was organised”.
6. Invoicing or finance records for any cost(s) involved/incurred?
Please reconsider the request in full and ensure ALL information is provided.
Yours faithfully,
James Scott
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I'd urge you to lay a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman regarding NZ Police's unacceptable delay in their initial response to your request, having taken 27 working days longer than allowed under the law.
NZ Police have a pattern of ignoring OIA due dates. If more requesters who find themselves on the receiving end of this unlawful behaviour are willing to complain about it, I think we're more likely to see Police actually improve their behaviour.
If you're not sure what to say, here is the template I use for complaining about overdue OIA responses: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ad2Z...
It's written for complaining about requests where the due date has passed but the response hasn't arrived yet, but could quite easily be altered to complain in retrospect about a long overdue response such as the one you received.
From: James Scott
Dear New Zealand Police,
Please be advised that a complaint has been made to the Office of the Ombudsman regarding both the unacceptable delay and unacceptable response to this OIA request.
Yours faithfully,
James Scott
James Scott left an annotation ()
I made a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman did commence an investigation, but I closed the file upon receiving a satisfactory explanation from both his Office and New Zealand Police. Consequently, the delay was never appropriately investigated.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Offensive? Unsuitable?
Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid requests for Official Information (read more).
If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators
Report this request
T Edwards left an annotation ()
I find it very hard to believe that there is no paper trail for this type of publication. Don’t forget that information that is yet to be reduced to writing is still official information (if all communication about this video was done verbally).
1. Who edited the video?
2. Who approved the concept, development, production etc?
3. Where did the budget for the video come from?
4. Where are the emails between Police, Fire and Emergency organising the interview?
5. Surely there was some type of communication between the parties. By self-declaration “the filming was organised”.
6. Invoicing or finance records for any cost(s) involved/incurred?
It appears that Police have taken an aggressive approach to the interpretation of your request. I would suggest going back potentially with the above. Over to you.
Link to this