Armed Offenders Squad, Special Tactics Group and Counter Terrorism manuals

Scott made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police

The request was successful.

From: Scott

Dear New Zealand Police,

I would like to make a request for copies of the following Police Manual chapters:

1) Armed Offenders Squad Manual
2) Special Tactics Group Manual
3) Counter Terrorism Manual

Yours faithfully,

Scott

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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police

Tēnā koe Scott

I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request below, received by Police on 18 July 2022.

Your reference number is IR-01-22-20909.

You can expect a response to your request on or before 15 August 2022, unless an extension is needed.

Ngā mihi,

Penni

Penni Davenport | Senior Advisor
Ministerial Services | Policy & Partnerships | PNHQ

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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()

The response to this request was due over a week ago now. By having failed to respond within the legislated timeframe, NZ Police have broken the law. I recommend you complain to the Ombudsman about this unlawful delay.

If it helps, I have a template I use when complaining to the Ombudsman about unlawfully overdue responses to OIA requests: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ad2Z...

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From: Scott

Dear New Zealand Police,

I was wanting to follow up on this request, which I believe was due back by 15 August. Are you able to let me know when I can expect your response?

Yours sincerely,

Scott

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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police

 Mōrena Scott

I can confirm that a response to your request is being drafted and will then progress through our internal consultation process. I am unable to confirm a release date at this stage.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with a response to your query.
We are endeavouring to provide this to you as soon as possible.

Ngā mihi

Julián (he/him)
Ministerial Services Advisor
NZ Police National Headquarters Wellington
If you’re wondering about the use of pronouns in email signatures, you can find more information here about how sharing pronouns can help create a sense of belonging and respect.
                   

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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()

I hope you'll lay a complaint about this unlawful delay. Police behave this way to many requesters, but because they are exempt from the jurisdiction of the Ombudsmen Act the Ombudsman is unable to investigate this as a pattern of unlawful behaviour.

Receiving individual complaints about unlawful delays like this one are the only way the Ombudsman is able to determine the scope of the problem, and the only way they can take any action against Police. But because of how the OIA is set up, only the requester has standing to complain about a response (or lack or a response) to an OIA request.

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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police


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Attachment Scott IR 01 22 20909 response.pdf
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Tēnā koe Scott                                  

Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act
request, received by New Zealand Police on 18 July 2022.

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with this
response.

Ngā mihi

 

Jeremy
Ministerial Services |

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

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
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Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()

I see Police has withheld a lot of information under section 6(c) of the Official Information Act, asserting that releasing it would be likely to prejudice the maintenance of the law.

In the past, Police has made very questionable decisions to withhold information from Police Manual chapters for this reason. Decisions that it later disagreed with. For example, when releasing the "Burglary and allied offences" chapter, Police at one point withheld information like this under s6(c):

"To ensure no fingerprints are missed, try to find... surfaces that may have been touched"

"Secure any evidence such as tools and instruments used to force entry"

Police later released that document in full to a different requester.

It's possible that Police have made similarly unjustified decisions to withhold information under s6(c) in response to this request. There is no way to know without seeing the information itself.

I recommend you lay a complaint with the Ombudsman regarding Police's decision to withhold some information from these documents.

The Ombudsman's guideline on section 6 refusals is clear that:

"It is not sufficient to simply assert that disclosure of the information will have a prejudicial effect. The public sector agency must be able to identify, with sufficient particularity, the nature of the prejudicial effect and explain how such prejudice will occur in order to meet the tests for withholding in section 6."

In investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman will likely require Police to explain the reason behind their decisions, in order to convince the Ombudsman that the decisions were justified. While considering this, the Ombudsman would also be able to review the information that has been withheld.

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