Fatal shootings by NZ Police
Mark Hanna made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was successful.
From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koutou,
I am interested in information about people who have been fatally shot by NZ Police. I have tried several times to find a list of fatal police shootings in New Zealand, but the closest I have been able to find has been several media features which are all now several years old:
Chronology of fatal shootings by NZ police - NZ Herald (2008)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic...
Police shootings number 29 in last 65 years - RNZ (2015)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/2803...
Under Fire - Stuff (2017)
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2017/11...
I am not sure how information about fatal shootings is held by NZ Police, particularly regarding incidents that predate the Independent Police Conduct Authority. However, I understand that section 13 of the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act 1988 (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publi...) requires the Police Commissioner to send the IPCA a written notice of any incidents during which a Police employee caused or appeared to have caused the death of a person. I expect Police have kept records of all such notices.
Please release the following information, as far back as records allow:
1. For each incident notified to the IPCA in which a Police employee fatally shot someone:
a) The date of the shooting
b) The name of the person who was killed
I do not know if there has ever been a case in New Zealand during which a Police employee shot someone who then died, but in which the shooting was not their cause of death. If there have been any incidents such as these, I would appreciate if you could still include them with a note that being shot was not their cause of death.
Please provide this information in an accessible, searchable format.
If any part of my request is unclear, please don't hesitate to contact me.
If any of the information that I have requested is unavailable or would be difficult to retrieve, but similar information might be readily available, I would be happy to discuss altering or refining my request.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Hanna
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request
below, transferred to NZ Police by the Minister of Police on 1 June 2020.
Your request is being actioned pursuant to the Act with a response due to
you on or before 30 June 2020.
Kind regards
Ministerial Services
PNHQ
-----"Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]> wrote:
-----
To: "OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police"
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: "Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]>
Date: 01/06/2020 12:28PM
Subject: Official Information request - Fatal shootings by NZ Police
Tēnā koutou,
I am interested in information about people who have been fatally shot by
NZ Police. I have tried several times to find a list of fatal police
shootings in New Zealand, but the closest I have been able to find has
been several media features which are all now several years old:
Chronology of fatal shootings by NZ police - NZ Herald (2008)
[1]https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic...
Police shootings number 29 in last 65 years - RNZ (2015)
[2]https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/2803...
Under Fire - Stuff (2017)
[3]https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2017/11...
I am not sure how information about fatal shootings is held by NZ Police,
particularly regarding incidents that predate the Independent Police
Conduct Authority. However, I understand that section 13 of the
Independent Police Conduct Authority Act 1988 (
[4]http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publi...
) requires the Police Commissioner to send the IPCA a written notice of
any incidents during which a Police employee caused or appeared to have
caused the death of a person. I expect Police have kept records of all
such notices.
Please release the following information, as far back as records allow:
1. For each incident notified to the IPCA in which a Police employee
fatally shot someone:
a) The date of the shooting
b) The name of the person who was killed
I do not know if there has ever been a case in New Zealand during which a
Police employee shot someone who then died, but in which the shooting was
not their cause of death. If there have been any incidents such as these,
I would appreciate if you could still include them with a note that being
shot was not their cause of death.
Please provide this information in an accessible, searchable format.
If any part of my request is unclear, please don't hesitate to contact me.
If any of the information that I have requested is unavailable or would be
difficult to retrieve, but similar information might be readily available,
I would be happy to discuss altering or refining my request.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
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[FYI request #12995 email]
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show quoted sections
From: Mark Hanna
Kia ora,
Thanks for acknowledging my request. However I'm a little confused at being told my request was transferred to NZ Police by the Minister of Police, and that NZ Police plans to respond by 30 June 2020.
I made this request using the FYI website. In this process, I pick the agency to whom I would like to send my request, but I don’t see the email address the website uses to send my request. If my request was initially received by the Minister of Police instead of New Zealand Police, could you please clarify if there is another email address it should have been sent to instead so I could pass this on to the FYI admin?
Also, given New Zealand Police received my request on 1 June 2020, I believe the Official Information Act requires that a response be sent as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 29 June 2020, rather than 30 June 2020. I have double checked this against the definition of "working day" in the Official Information Act, and using the OIA calculator on the Ombudsman's website.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Hanna
Please accept my apologies for the error in the acknowledgement that was
sent to you.
It should have read as follows:
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request
below, received by NZ Police on 1 June 2020.
Your request is being actioned pursuant to the Act with a response due to
you on or before 29 June 2020.
Kind regards
Ministerial Services
PNHQ
-----"Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]> wrote:
-----
To: "OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police"
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: "Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]>
Date: 04/06/2020 01:39PM
Subject: Re: OIA Request Acknowledgement IR-01-20-15004: Fatal shootings
by NZ Police
Kia ora,
Thanks for acknowledging my request. However I'm a little confused at
being told my request was transferred to NZ Police by the Minister of
Police, and that NZ Police plans to respond by 30 June 2020.
I made this request using the FYI website. In this process, I pick the
agency to whom I would like to send my request, but I don’t see the email
address the website uses to send my request. If my request was initially
received by the Minister of Police instead of New Zealand Police, could
you please clarify if there is another email address it should have been
sent to instead so I could pass this on to the FYI admin?
Also, given New Zealand Police received my request on 1 June 2020, I
believe the Official Information Act requires that a response be sent as
soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 29 June 2020, rather than
30 June 2020. I have double checked this against the definition of
"working day" in the Official Information Act, and using the OIA
calculator on the Ombudsman's website.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
show quoted sections
From: Mark Hanna
Kia ora,
Okay that's great, thanks for clarifying.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
From: Mark Hanna
Kia ora,
A response to this request is due as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than the 29th of June, which is 2 working days from today. I understand that Police's approvals process for OIA responses takes 5-7 working days, can you please confirm for me whether or not the response for this request has been prepared and submitted for approval early enough that I can expect Police's decision to be communicated within the legal timeframe?
If the decision is anticipated to be unlawfully delayed past this date, without an extension being granted under section 15A of the OIA, can you please let me know when I can expect to receive the response and what the cause of the delay was?
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
New Zealand Police
Tena koe Mr Hanna
I can see that your response is currently under review. I have forwarded
your query to the work group to respond to you directly.
Kind regards
Rikki Hanna
Ministerial Services
PNHQ
-----"Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]> wrote:
-----
To: "OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police"
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: "Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]>
Date: 25/06/2020 09:01AM
Subject: Re: Re: OIA Request Acknowledgement IR-01-20-15004: Fatal
shootings by NZ Police
Kia ora,
A response to this request is due as soon as reasonably practicable, and
in any case not later than the 29th of June, which is 2 working days from
today. I understand that Police's approvals process for OIA responses
takes 5-7 working days, can you please confirm for me whether or not the
response for this request has been prepared and submitted for approval
early enough that I can expect Police's decision to be communicated within
the legal timeframe?
If the decision is anticipated to be unlawfully delayed past this date,
without an extension being granted under section 15A of the OIA, can you
please let me know when I can expect to receive the response and what the
cause of the delay was?
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
show quoted sections
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Since Police did not send me a notification of their decision on this request today, and it hasn't been extended, they have broken the law. I'll be lodging a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman in the morning.
This is the 7th consecutive OIA request of mine on FYI that Police have failed to respond to within the legislative timeframe.
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I have lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman regarding this unlawful delay.
From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koutou,
Under section 15 of the Official Information Act, Police was legally required to communicate its decision on my request as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 29 June 2020. This time limit was not extended under section 15A of the Act. It has now been 5 working days since this legal deadline, but I have not yet received Police's decision on my request.
I asked on 25 June 2020 whether or not I could expect Police's decision to be communicated within the legal timeframe and, if the decision was anticipated to be unlawfully delayed past this date, when I could expect to receive the response and what the cause of the delay was. Though I was told that Police's response was under review at the time, Police has not answered any of these other questions.
Including a separate request, which was due on 3 July 2020 and is also currently overdue, Police has failed to respond to any the last 8 requests for official information I have made through the FYI website, going back to March 2019, within the legislated timeframe.
In 3 of those cases (502505, 506828, 506616) I was told by the Ombudsman that Police accepted there had been a failure to meet the timeliness requirements imposed by the OIA.
In 1 case (509784) I received an apology directly from Police.
In 2 cases (512867, 516606) Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier formed the final opinion that there had been a failure to meet the requirements imposed by the OIA.
In the other 2 cases, I am currently waiting on Police's responses.
I'm sure you can understand how frustrating this is. I am tired of being told again and again that Police has accepted it failed to meet the requirements of the law, only to see it continue with the same unlawful behaviour. It is clear that these unlawful delays are unacceptable, and I do not understand how they can continue to happen so frequently without there being some fundamental problem with how Police handles requests for official information.
I am sure this is not a situation that Police wants to find itself in. However, Police has a duty to uphold the law.
I have lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman regarding the unlawful delay in Police's response to this request. Please send the response immediately.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
New Zealand Police
Kia ora Mark
Thank you for your email. I understand that you have had multiple delays
of OIA requests, and appreciate that this is frustrating.
Your OIA is it its final stages of review and I anticipate that it will be
released to you within 8 working days.
Kind regards
Rikki-Lee Hanna
PNHQ
-----"Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]> wrote:
-----
To: "OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police"
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: "Mark Hanna" <[FYI request #12995 email]>
Date: 06/07/2020 01:33PM
Subject: Re: Re: Re: OIA Request Acknowledgement IR-01-20-15004: Fatal
shootings by NZ Police
Tēnā koutou,
Under section 15 of the Official Information Act, Police was legally
required to communicate its decision on my request as soon as reasonably
practicable, and in any case not later than 29 June 2020. This time limit
was not extended under section 15A of the Act. It has now been 5 working
days since this legal deadline, but I have not yet received Police's
decision on my request.
I asked on 25 June 2020 whether or not I could expect Police's decision to
be communicated within the legal timeframe and, if the decision was
anticipated to be unlawfully delayed past this date, when I could expect
to receive the response and what the cause of the delay was. Though I was
told that Police's response was under review at the time, Police has not
answered any of these other questions.
Including a separate request, which was due on 3 July 2020 and is also
currently overdue, Police has failed to respond to any the last 8 requests
for official information I have made through the FYI website, going back
to March 2019, within the legislated timeframe.
In 3 of those cases (502505, 506828, 506616) I was told by the Ombudsman
that Police accepted there had been a failure to meet the timeliness
requirements imposed by the OIA.
In 1 case (509784) I received an apology directly from Police.
In 2 cases (512867, 516606) Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier formed the final
opinion that there had been a failure to meet the requirements imposed by
the OIA.
In the other 2 cases, I am currently waiting on Police's responses.
I'm sure you can understand how frustrating this is. I am tired of being
told again and again that Police has accepted it failed to meet the
requirements of the law, only to see it continue with the same unlawful
behaviour. It is clear that these unlawful delays are unacceptable, and I
do not understand how they can continue to happen so frequently without
there being some fundamental problem with how Police handles requests for
official information.
I am sure this is not a situation that Police wants to find itself in.
However, Police has a duty to uphold the law.
I have lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman regarding the
unlawful delay in Police's response to this request. Please send the
response immediately.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
show quoted sections
New Zealand Police
Kia ora Mark
Please find attached the response to your request.
Kind regards
Hannah
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
From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koe,
Thank you for your response. However, I do not believe you are correct that all the information I have requested is publicly available in the places you have said.
In November 2019, prior to this request, I reviewed all of the investigation outcomes published on the IPCA website to collate fatal shootings by Police. I found that the investigation outcomes published there only went back to 1994, with the earliest recorded fatal shooting being that of Eric Gellatly in 1995. However, I know there were other fatal police shootings between the establishment of the IPCA and the killing of Eric Gellatly, such as the fatal shooting of Larry Hammond in 1993.
Also, because the IPCA only publishes the outcomes of investigations, I cannot reliably use their website to collate any cases where a person has been fatally shot by NZ Police and the IPCA's investigation is not yet complete. However, if there are any such cases currently they would fall within the scope of my request.
I appreciate hearing that the next Tactical Options Reporting research report, covering 2019, is expected to be published this month. However, as I'm sure you will be aware, prior to the summary report covering 2018 these summary reports excluded events involving fatalities.
Also, due to the way TOR events are recorded, they cannot be reliably used to count the number of people fatally shot. For example, when Jerrim Toms was killed in 2018, he was shot at a total of 12 times by two police officers, which means there were two separate TOR events recorded where an officer shot someone and the outcome was that they died.
As not all the information I have requested is publicly available, I would like to reiterate my request that you release:
1. For each incident notified to the IPCA in which a Police employee fatally shot someone:
a) The date of the shooting
b) The name of the person who was killed
I will be laying a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman regarding this refusal. However, I hope that you will understand why I object to your decision, and reconsider your decision in light of this objection without making me first wait months for the outcome of my complaint.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
From: Response & Operations
New Zealand Police
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your email.
I can confirm that the missing information will be included in the 2019
TOR report.
A supplementary report will be included to provide information about
shootings by NZ Police as far back as records allow.
This supplementary report is intended to address the high level of public
interest surrounding these incidents, and will hold the information you
are seeking.
Nicholas
RESPONSE AND OPS GROUP
Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street, Wellington
[1]cid:image002.png@01CF897B.1077C0A0
===============================================================
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
References
Visible links
From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koe,
Thank you for your response. I'm pleased to hear that the information I have requested will soon be made publicly available via this supplementary report, and I look forward to seeing it published.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I guess I have a perfect sense of timing with my complaints? Since it sounds like the information I've requested will soon be made publicly available, I've withdrawn my complaint to the Ombudsman.
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Police have not yet notified me that this information has been published, but a supplementary report on Police shootings from 1916-2020 was been published alongside the annual TOR summary report covering 2019 last week: https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default...
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I have to correct my previous annotation. Though Police have released a supplementary report on Police shootings 1916-2020, this report does not include the name of anyone shot by Police. This was information I had asked for, which has not yet been released and has not been refused appropriately. I will be laying a complaint with the Ombudsman.
From: Response & Operations
New Zealand Police
Hi Mark,
Please find attached the updated response relating to your request for the
names of individuals shot by NZ Police.
Thanks,
Nicholas
RESPONSE AND OPS GROUP
Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street, 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
Mr Rodgers left an annotation ()
That made me laugh.
Pointing to media articles is hardly official information is it? Or is that how Police do their filing?
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Yeah that was a bit odd eh? Still, it gives me the information I was looking for. And being from an official source, that means it can be more useful for places like Wikipedia as an authoritatively complete list.
I kind of suspect this approach may have been intended as a bit of a passive aggressive nod to Police's reason for having refused my request initially, having said all the information I requested is already publicly available.
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
In case the links in Police's response might break one day, here is a list of the names:
27/10/1990 Paul Melvin Stowers
14/11/1990 David Malcolm Gray
29/07/1993 Larry Hammond
21/02/2019 Astin Cruz Hooper
23/11/2019 Ethan Kerapa, also known Orynn
(this article also notes that, at the time, "Police are yet to officially name the man", but I think it's reasonable to treat its inclusion here as an official confirmation of the information in the article)
05/12/2019 Graeme Sydney Warren
13/02/2020 Anthony John Fane
20/04/2020 Hitesh Navin Lal
19/05/2020 Alan Nevile Rowe
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
The IPCA has today released its report into the fatal shooting of Donald Ineson on 25 November 2018: https://www.ipca.govt.nz/Site/publicatio...
This incident had been included (without a name or a link to an IPCA report) in Police's list of shootings. When the Ombudsman reviewed it during my complaint, this incident was missed. When I reviewed the list of missing information the Ombudsman had put together, I didn't notice this incident was not included.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Regarding the part of my request that deals with cases where Police shot someone who died, but may not have died because they were shot, a New Zealand Herald article published today[1] contains some information about Police shootings, and includes this:
"One of the incidents listed as a fatality involved a shootout with an offender in Northland[2], during which the house the man was in caught fire. His cause of death was listed as unconfirmed."
[1] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic...
[2] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic...
Link to this