Tēnā koe Sarah,

Police acknowledges receipt of your request for information under the OIA, dated 28 March 2024.

Your reference number is IR-01-24-11071.

You can expect a response to your request on or before 30 April 2024, unless an extension is needed.

Ngā mihi,
Leo
Ministerial Services - Police National Headquarters

show quoted sections

Kia ora Sarah

I refer to your below request of 28 March 2024

I have been asked to advise you that Police requires an extension of time in which to respond to your request, pursuant to section 15A(1) of the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). Specifically, section 15A(1)(b), consultations necessary to make a decision on the request are such that a proper response to the request cannot reasonably be made within the original time limit.

Police requires until 10 May 2024 to provide a substantive response to your request, however we are endeavouring to provide this to you as soon as possible.

You have the right, under section 28(3) of the OIA, to make a complaint to an Ombudsman about this extension. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this decision, please feel free to contact [email address]

Kind regards, Jonelle
Advisor - Ministerial Services Police National Headquarters

show quoted sections

Tēnā koe Sarah

 

Please find attached the response and documentation relating to your
Official Information Act request, received by Police on 28 March 2024.

 

Ngā mihi

McCoy

Ministerial Services

Police National Headquarters

 

===============================================================

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

Kia ora Sarah

Thank you for your below email and I look to respond in turn.

"There does however appear, on the face of the information provided, to be a mismatch between this commentary and decisions taken on the day. In particular, I note that each of following jobs could be situations where “people’s lives, or safety are in danger”:

- 16:07:49 Serious Assaults, Not Attended;
- 18:16:11 Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing, Not Attended;
- 18:20:00 Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing, Not Attended;
-19:14:13 No Speech Emergency, Attended 34 minutes after the call was taken."

These types of calls , and the decisions made on whether to attend, including the risk assessment are made by the Communications Centre Staff, based in Wellington at the National Communications Centre. The codes and the narrative accompanying them are general codes, and the wording of that narrative should not be taken as an indication of the level of risk or danger. An assessment is made at the Communications Centre , and often when a job is not attended it is either because the situation does not warrant attendance, or sometimes other information sources are used, for example CCTV cameras identifying that the situation has changed. A no speech emergency for example can mean someone has mistakenly called 111. The code for street and drag racing does not mean a "drag race" in the literal sense of the word and could include a car skidding tyres as it drives off.

"Could you please provide notes from RIOD or other systems recorded before the first unit arrived on scene for each of these jobs to enable me to understand the nature of the request Police received and based its decisions about non-deployment/delayed deployment on."

This would be a new OIA request as it would require a search of our systems. Please let me know if you would like me to log that as a new OIA.

"Could you please also confirm the rank and role (e.g. Inspector, Deployment Manager) of the person who made the initial decision about whether or not to (or in the case of the No Speech call, to delay) send a unit to each of those jobs, and the same details for anyone who may have changed those instructions."

As mentioned previously, this decision is made by the National Communications Centre staff, they are police employees, supervised in the Communications Centre by a shift Inspector.

'"Finally could you advise whether Police consider that the deployment decisions were fully appropriate and, if not, detail the actions that have been taken (e.g. disciplinary actions/ performance actions/ changes to processes and procedures) that Police have instigated as a result."

The deployment decisions were appropriate, these types of decisions are made every day (Police receive approximately 3000 calls per day).

Ngâ mihi
McCoy
Advisor | Ministerial Services
Police National Headquarters

show quoted sections