IR-01-23-13572
8 June 2023
Amanda Murtagh
[FYI request #22677 email]
Tēnā koe Amanda
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request of 3 May 2023.
You asked information regarding the recording of information in a person’s dossier.
My response to each of your questions can be found below. For the purposes of this
request, I have interpreted ‘personal dossier’ to include our practice of recording
information in the Police National Intel igence Application (NIA).
1. Are al communications by a member of the public to the NZ Police, recorded in their
personal Police dossier?
No. I can advise that there are a variety of administrative systems used by Police in their
day-to-day business, and not al communications are collected into a person’s dossier.
2. Under what circumstances would the NZ Police not record a communication from a
member of the public in their personal dossier?
This would depend on the particulars of the communication, the mode of that
communication, the outcome and next steps required, as well as policy settings. The
policy as it relates to recording into personal dossiers is further clarified in my response to
your third question. For example:
•
A call to 111 may not be recorded in a person dossier if Police do not deem it
necessary to dispatch Police response or do not attend. Similarly, a cal to 105
may not be recorded into a person dossier if the outcome of that call is the
provision of general advice about a situation.
•
A visit to a Police station may also just result in the provision of information and
advice on the spot and may not be recorded in a person’s dossier. Approaching
an officer directly may result in some notebook entries being made by the officer
at the time but these would not necessarily be recorded into the person dossier.
•
Emails to members of Police may not be recorded in a person dossier and would
usually be replied to directly.
•
Information requests like these are also not routinely recorded in a person
dossier.
3. What are the standard operating procedures of the NZ Police regarding the
recording of a communication from a member of the public to the NZ Police?
The Police’s standard operating procedure for recording information is outlined in the
National Recording Standard (NRS), and is publicly available at
https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/national-recording-standard-march-2022
The NRS does not stipulate that all communications in relation to an individual must be
recorded into a NIA person dossier.
I refer you to NRS section 1.2.3
Use structured fields, which outlines that
“Wherever a
structured field exists in Police systems, it must be used to capture any relevant
information”. This has the effect of saying that communications in general should be
recorded but does not stipulate that they be recorded or available in a NIA person
dossier.
NRS section 1.3.3
Types of Reports that Require a NIA Occurrence Record sets out the
range of communications which would formally require recoding and by doing so be
available in a person’s dossier.
Some of the communications covered in the illustrative examples in the response to
question two, however, may be recorded into NIA and available in a person’s dossier.
This will depend on the circumstances and the Police response to those individual
circumstances. I also refer you to NRS section 1.3.5
Other Non-Victim Offence, Incident
and Task Recording Rule, which indicates that “
For all other non-victim offences,
incidents and tasks, a CARD event must be recorded in situations where…Police carry
out a Task and decide it is worthy of recording for administrative purposes”.
Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police
proactively releases some information and documents that may be of interest to the
public. An anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on the New
Zealand Police website.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision if you are not satisfied
with the response to your request. Information about how to make a complaint is
available at: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Nāku noa, nā
Zane Kearns
Director (Acting) Service Group
New Zealand Police
