Police Informants
Liam made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was successful.
From: Liam
Dear New Zealand Police,
This is a request for information, made under the provisions of ss4 and 5 of the Official Information Act 1982 (“the Act”). I therefore would like the following information;
1. How many Paid Police informants you have. Could you please break this down into Areas, not just Districts; and
2. How are they remunerated: and
3. How much are they, on average, remunerated per interaction; and
4. What legal relationship do the Police have with the informants? Are they employed, with a contract or are they paid "under the table"; and
5. Please provide any policy document or manual for Police dealing with informants.
Please CONFIRM receipt of this email to prevent unnecessary follow-up emails and extensions requested.
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As required by s12(1) of the Act, I am a New Zealand citizen. I will provide confirmation of this, if required. However, since all of our correspondence will be published on the FYI.org.nz site, I will only do so over the phone or email, with which you provide. This would only be for the purpose of citizenship confirmation, and nothing further related to this request.
As required by s12(3) of the Act, I shall provide reason(s) why this request should be treated as URGENT. The questions above raise important issues of accountability of the Government, its departments and agents. Any and all information provided as a result of this request could and may be published either by the writer online to a wide audience or passed onto media outlets for publication so that the public can be kept informed on important issues of transparency.
As required by s13(c) of the Act, if this request “has not been made … to the appropriate department or Minister of the Crown or organisation or local authority”, it is your duty to give reasonable assistance to me to direct my request to the appropriate department or Minister of the Crown or organisation or local authority.
Further to the above statutory requirement, under s14 of the Act, if the information I seek is either not held or you believe it is more closely connected with another department or Minister of the Crown or organisation, or of a local authority you shall promptly, and in any case not later than 10 working days after the day on which the request is received, transfer the request to the other department or Minister of the Crown or organisation, or to that local authority, AND inform me accordingly.
As required under s15A of the Act, if you believe that a time extension is warranted for this request, you must under ss15A(2),(3) and (4) give notice to me of this extension within 20 working days after the day on which my request was received. In that notice, you should state; the period of the extension, give reasons for the extension and remind me of my right to complain to the Ombudsman under s28(3). Finally, the extension must be for a reasonable time, having regards to the circumstances.
As required by s18B of the Act, you must consider consulting me before refusing my request under the provisions of ss18(e) and (f) which relate to a document not being able to be found or existing or where substantial collation and research would be required for my current request.
As required by s19(a)(i), you must provide reasons if you refuse any parts of this request.
I will, if required, complain to the Ombudsman, as is my right under s28(3) of the Act, if any of the above statutory requirements on you are not complied with. Further to this, if your reply is not “as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request is received” as required under s15(1) of the Act, I will also complain to the Ombudsman.
This request is made through the site FYI.org.nz. All correspondence will be automatically forwarded to me through the site and published online immediately. I require, where appropriate, all electronic copies of all documents in your response. For more information on how the site works, please visit www.fyi.org.nz/help/about.
Yours faithfully,
Liam Stoneley
From: Liam
Dear New Zealand Police,
I have not had confirmation of this request being received. This usually occurs when I have dealt with your agency before.
You are now halfway through your response period. Please confirm you understand and have received this request.
Yours faithfully,
Liam Stoneley
New Zealand Police
Dear Liam
Thank you for your email. We can confirm that this OIA had been received,
and is in the process of follow up by the relevant team.
Apoligies for not acknowledging your request when it was originally
submitted.
Kind regards,
PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM
NZ POLICE
-----Liam Stoneley <[FOI #2421 email]> wrote:
-----
To: OIA requests at New Zealand Police <[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: Liam Stoneley <[FOI #2421 email]>
Date: 28/01/2015 04:53PM
Subject: Re: Official Information Act request - Police Informants
Dear New Zealand Police,
I have not had confirmation of this request being received. This usually
occurs when I have dealt with your agency before.
You are now halfway through your response period. Please confirm you
understand and have received this request.
Yours faithfully,
Liam Stoneley
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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #2421 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published
on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[1]https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an OIA officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA page.
show quoted sections
From: Liam
Dear New Zealand Police,
As noted on my request, I have asked that this request be dealt with as URGENT. It has now been 13 working days.
I look forward to a timely response.
Yours faithfully,
Liam Stoneley
From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police
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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
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
From: FYI.org.nz Administrator
Received via [1]FYI.org.nz admin: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 at 08:44
References
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1. http://fyi.org.nz/
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
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Liam left an annotation ()
Complaint to Ombudsman:
I wish to make a complaint against the New Zealand Police in regards to a request I sent to them and the response I received under the Official Information Act 1982.
I send most of my OIA requests through the site FYI.org.nz. This was the case for this request as well. All correspondence is publicly available online at the link provided below. There have been no other communication regarding this request made through any other channels.
https://www.fyi.org.nz/request/2421-poli...
I will address each question I asked, and the grounds of their refusal:
1. I understand the reasons the Police refused this question, however, it is my belief that they could have at least provided the number of informant they have nationwide, or even in the 12 Districts. I do not accept that this would be prejudicial to those involved and put them in danger. I think that identifying the number of informants on this level is justified and in the public interest.
2. There is no complaint here.
3. I do not believe the Police have made any reasonable excuse to not provide this information. Even, an indication of the amount or transaction type would sufficiently answer the question in my mind.
4. There is no complaint here.
5. The OIA is a vital tool available to the public to keep the Government's agents to account. If the Police are going to refuse to provide their manuals, even in a redacted form, then how are we the public able to use the OIA effectively?
The Police have used excuses to not abide by the OIA in this case. It is my submission that in order to hold the Police to account and prevent corruption, as is seen in many other Police forces across the world, they must be open to providing information on matters of public interest. Police informants are inherently very secretive operations and thus become prime targets for corrupt and illegal transactions and actions. It is vital that what can be, is made public. I believe in this case, the Police have got the line between openness and the maintenance of law, wrong.
I look forward to your response,
Kind Regards
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