IR-01-22-4864
22 March 2022
Liz Simmons
[FYI request #18627 email]
Tēnā koe Liz
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request of 21 February 2022, in which
you asked for information relating to the Wel ington protests.
My response to each of your questions can be found below.
The number of complaints made about the NZ Police due their lack of law
enforcement on the anti-mandate protesters in Wel ington.
Below are the total number of complaints, broken down by use of force, or inaction, up to 21
February 2022.
Complaints
Use of
Inaction Total
received
force
complaints
9/02/2022
1
1
2
10/02/2022
68
1
69
11/02/2022
112
1
123
12/02/2022
23
2
25
13/02/2022
5
5
10
14/02/2022
10
14
24
15/02/2022
3
16
19
16/02/2022
3
6
9
17/02/2022
0
12
12
18/02/2022
3
36
39
Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Telephone: 04 474 9499. Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz
Complaints
Use of
Inaction Total
received
force
complaints
19/02/2022
1
21
22
20/02/2022
2
11
13
21/02/2022
4
3
7
TOTAL
235
129
374
The number and sections of laws, that the police are aware of, that have been
broken by the protestors that they have chosen not to take enforcement action
on.
To be able to answer this part of your request Police would need to manually review footage
taken and ask police officers that worked the protests to form an opinion on what offences may
have occurred when an arrest was not made. There is no obligation to create information in
order to respond to an OIA request. Therefore, this part of your request is refused under s18(g)
of the OIA, as the information is not held and Police has no reason to believe it is held by
another agency.
Lastly, I request the number of complaints made by the Wellington public that
NZ police have received regarding the protestors.
Members of the public can express their dissatisfaction or make a formal complaint to Police
through a number of channels, for example: through the online complaints portal or by entering
any Police station and making a complaint over the counter.
Police would need to do a manual search of each of these complaints to determine which
related to the protestors, and there would be no easy way of being able to determine if the
complainants are Wellington based or from other parts of New Zealand without contacting them
to clarify. Therefore, this part of your request is refused under s18(f) of the OIA, as the
information requested cannot be made available without substantial col ation or research; and
s18(g) of the OIA, the information is not held, and Police has no reason to believe it is held by
another agency.
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.
Yours sincerely
David Greig
Superintendent – Major Operations Centre
New Zealand Police
Document Outline
- IR-01-22-4864 approval LH and DG.pdf
- [EXTERNAL] Official Information request - Wellington protests.pdf