Police Vetting Information
Joshua Grainger made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was partially successful.
From: Joshua Grainger
Dear New Zealand Police,
I was recently made aware of the ability that the Police have to 'vet' people for employers, which has the ability to not only show up person's criminal convictions, but also details of any interactions with the Police that a person may have had as a victim. I would like to request some information under the Official Information Act about this.
I would like to request:
a) a list of the approved organizations that Police vetting is available for, as it is my understanding that organizations need to be approved before they can request vetting
b) any statistics about how often Police vetting is used, including any statistics about when the police refuse to vet someone due to privacy concerns
c) the Police website mentions a 'memorandum of understanding.' I would like to request this memorandum.
d) any correspondence that the Police have had with the office of the Privacy Commissioner regarding the practice of Police vetting (other than concerning an investigation under the Privacy Act, which is excluded from being considered official information).
e) a copy of any privacy impact assessment (PIA) that has been created regarding the practice of Police vetting.
f) a copy of any criteria, guidelines, manuals, or other documents that the Police use in deciding whether to red-stamp a vetting request.
g) whether the Police have found that they have wrongfully released any information in response to a vetting request, and if so, any statistics about how often this occurs.
h) whether the Police have withdrawn the authorization for an organization to request Police vetting due to inappropriate handling of private information, and if so, any statistics about this.
For the purposes of s16(1) I am a New Zealand citizenship who is resident in New Zealand. You can consider the relevant sections of my request (I imagine questions (c), (d) and (f)) as requests for internal rules under s23 of the Official Information Act, or alternatively if they do not fit the criteria of s23, an ordinary s16 request.
Feel free to contact me if you wish me to clarify my request.
Yours faithfully,
Joshua Grainger
New Zealand Police
Dear Joshua,
Thank you for your email.
I have forwarded your request to our Ministerial Services team.
They will be in touch with you in due course.
Kind regards
PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM
NZ POLICE
MCA
-----Joshua Grainger <[OIA #726 email]> wrote:
-----
To: OIA requests at New Zealand Police <[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: Joshua Grainger <[OIA #726 email]>
Date: 18/01/2013 10:25AM
Subject: Official Information Act request - Police Vetting Information
Dear New Zealand Police,
I was recently made aware of the ability that the Police have to
'vet' people for employers, which has the ability to not only show
up person's criminal convictions, but also details of any
interactions with the Police that a person may have had as a
victim. I would like to request some information under the Official
Information Act about this.
I would like to request:
a) a list of the approved organizations that Police vetting is
available for, as it is my understanding that organizations need to
be approved before they can request vetting
b) any statistics about how often Police vetting is used, including
any statistics about when the police refuse to vet someone due to
privacy concerns
c) the Police website mentions a 'memorandum of understanding.' I
would like to request this memorandum.
d) any correspondence that the Police have had with the office of
the Privacy Commissioner regarding the practice of Police vetting
(other than concerning an investigation under the Privacy Act,
which is excluded from being considered official information).
e) a copy of any privacy impact assessment (PIA) that has been
created regarding the practice of Police vetting.
f) a copy of any criteria, guidelines, manuals, or other documents
that the Police use in deciding whether to red-stamp a vetting
request.
g) whether the Police have found that they have wrongfully released
any information in response to a vetting request, and if so, any
statistics about how often this occurs.
h) whether the Police have withdrawn the authorization for an
organization to request Police vetting due to inappropriate
handling of private information, and if so, any statistics about
this.
For the purposes of s16(1) I am a New Zealand citizenship who is
resident in New Zealand. You can consider the relevant sections of
my request (I imagine questions (c), (d) and (f)) as requests for
internal rules under s23 of the Official Information Act, or
alternatively if they do not fit the criteria of s23, an ordinary
s16 request.
Feel free to contact me if you wish me to clarify my request.
Yours faithfully,
Joshua Grainger
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From: SMITH, Jason
New Zealand Police
Grainger Joshua 12 143 12 information about vetting and validation sent reply.pdf
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Grainger Joshua 12 143 12 information about vetting and validation list of Approved agencies Jan 2013.xls
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Dear Joshua
Please find attached the New Zealand Police response to you Official
Information Act request.
Yours sincerely
Jason Smith
Ministerial Services
New Zealand Police - Nga Pirihimana O Aotearoa
===============================================================
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
Joshua Grainger left an annotation ()
Memorandum of Understanding is available here: https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default...
This response indicates that consultation has taken place with the Privacy Commissioner, but no correspondence could be found. Under the hope that the Privacy Commissioner may hold better records than the Police I have filed a follow up request with them here: http://fyi.org.nz/request/police_vetting...
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Joshua Grainger left an annotation ()
Note that I got the section for internal rules wrong: it is section 22 instead of section 23. Section 23 concerns the reason for a decision affecting a particular person rather than general internal rules.
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