Privacy Act Requests and Police procedure relating to
J A Harris made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was partially successful.
From: J A Harris
Dear New Zealand Police,
I am a New Zealand citizen and resident in New Zealand, making this request under the Official Information Act.
Please provide:
1. Statistics relating to the number of principle 6 privacy act requests received by Police in the 18 months to 31 July 2022. Include the number of requests received, time to respond with the decision or information, statistics relating to the number of requests which are denied and the reasons for denying which are relied upon, statistics relating to situations where the OPC have required or advised police to release information they tried to withhold
2. Any internal guidance, policies, procedures, decision papers or other material which is or might be used by Police in determining if they are correctly responding to requests and complying with the Privacy Act. For clarity, this includes any material which helps an officer decide to decline or approve a request, what information to release, and what grounds can be relied upon for refusing to release.
3. Any internal escalation or review of this process or decisions made by individuals responding to privacy act requests on police’s behalf
4. Any documentation relating to steps Police take to ensure information they receive is only “linked” to the correct person that information is about. For clarity this includes how police determine the natural person involved and how police ensure the identity information is correct and accurate to an individual.
5. Any documentation relating to how an individual’s identity is confirmed in NIA or other Police applications.
6. Any documentation relating to steps taken by Police to ensure section 6 privacy act requests are only released to the correct person, with particular interest in areas where identity is questionable such as people with the same name and date of birth.
Yours faithfully,
J A Harris
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A Harris
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request below, received by New Zealand Police on 19 October 2022.
Your request is being actioned pursuant to the OIA. You can expect a response to your request on or before 17 November 2022.
Kind regards, Dylan
Ministerial Services PNHQ
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From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A Harris
Police are seeking clarification of your requirements in relation to part of Question 1 of your request, specifically, ‘time to respond with the decision or information’.
Are you seeking details of the number of working days taken to respond with a decision for each individual Privacy Act request, an average working day response time, or another measure in relation to working days taken to process Privacy Act requests?
We would appreciate if you could please clarify your requirements in relation to this part of Question 1. It would be appreciated if you could provide this clarification by 9 November 2022.
Ngā mihi
Fiona
Ministerial Services
Police National Headquarters
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From: J A Harris
Dear Ministerial Services,
Please provide the the lowest, highest, and average number of working days for response. Please also provide the count of any requests which may have exceeded that highest number of open days and remain open.
It is not necessary to disclose the response time for individual requests.
Yours sincerely,
J A Harris
From: J A Harris
Dear Ministerial Services,
Please be advised that by law, a response to this request was due promptly and no later than December 02, 2022.
I note that Police have responded to other delayed OIA responses made via the fyi.org.nz website stating responses have in fact been prepared by the due date but are awaiting internal consultation. Police should be reminded that the due date of the response period includes any and all internal consultation required for the response. That is to say, the due date is when it is due to the requester, not when it is due to be ready for consultation or any other milestone.
I look forward to your prompt response and release of the requested information.
Yours sincerely,
J A Harris
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police
Tēnā koe J A
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act
request, received by New Zealand Police on 19 October 2022.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with this
response.
Ngā mihi
Dylan
Dylan
Advisor | Ministerial Services | Police National Headquarters
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J A Harris left an annotation ()
I think there is ground to be covered in how Police determine correct the correct identity to which to apply information they receive. They appear to have inadequate processes around this, which will be the subject of further OIA requests and a Privacy Act complaint.
T. Barn left an annotation ()
Your case interests me. I think there is grounds to question their need to store the identification documents provided to them. The manual linked in an earlier annotation shows they will store the proof that identity was confirmed, and has no time limit on it. What is their explanation for how this complies with the Privacy Act? It is one thing to collect and verify the documents. But continuing to store that information into perpetuity may be violating Information Privacy Principle 9 ("An agency that holds personal information must not keep that information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used.")
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
You may be interested in reviewing Police's "Privacy and official information - Disclosure under the Privacy Act 1993" policy document, which was released under the OIA in July 2020: https://policepolicy.nz/policies/privacy...
It's no longer active, having since been replaced with an equivalent document referring to the new Privacy Act 2020. I don't believe this newer document has been made public before, but I would expect it to fall within the scope of your request.
Link to this