Information on use of police dogs
Simon Garlick made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was partially successful.
From: Simon Garlick
Dear New Zealand Police,
I am a New Zealand citizen residing in New Zealand. I would like to request the following data:
1) On how many occasions in recent years were police dogs used to apprehend someone?
2) How many of these resulted in short term/long term injuries to the subject?
3) How many of these resulted in injuries to the dog(s)?
4) Where possible, demographic information on the subject (age, gender, race, etc)
Yours faithfully,
Simon Garlick
From: FOUNTAIN, Nicholas
New Zealand Police
Hello Simon
I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request
for the information below.
Your request is being actioned pursuant to the OIA.
Ngā mihi
Nick Fountain
Ministerial Services Advisor
Police National Headquarters
E [1][email address]
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Dear New Zealand Police,
I am a New Zealand citizen residing in New Zealand. I would like to
request the following data:
1) On how many occasions in recent years were police dogs used to
apprehend someone?
2) How many of these resulted in short term/long term injuries to the
subject?
3) How many of these resulted in injuries to the dog(s)?
4) Where possible, demographic information on the subject (age, gender,
race, etc)
Yours faithfully,
Simon Garlick
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show quoted sections
From: Simon Garlick
Dear FOUNTAIN, Nicholas,
I'm requesting an update on my OIA request filed February 18th 2019. By law the deadline for a response was March 18 2019, which has now passed. An update would be appreciated, or reason for the extension.
Yours sincerely,
Simon Garlick
From: FOUNTAIN, Nicholas
New Zealand Police
Hello Simon
Your request is in the final review stages.
Regards
Nick Fountain
Ministerial Services Advisor
Police National Headquarters
E [email address]
show quoted sections
From: Simon Garlick
Dear Mr Fountain,
It has now been fourteen business days (eighteen days total) since my request was due, and five business days (seven days total) since your statement that my request "is in the final review stages".
By law I should have been informed of the delay before the due date, and told the reason for the delay as well as the expected time-frame. None of these happened, making for clear and unambiguous violations of the Official Information Act.
Please provide the said information.
Yours Sincerely,
Simon Garlick
New Zealand Police
Hello Simon
I have been asked to send the attached response.
Ngā mihi
MinisterialServices
Police NationalHeadquarters
[1]wordmark transparent
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I wonder under what circumstances Police will or won't choose to record the use of a police dog to apprehend someone as a "Tactical Option Reporting" (TOR) event?
In TOR data previously released by Police for 2017[1][2], they've recorded 290 of these events. It seems that would roughly correspond with the number of people who were bitten over two and a bit years as reported in part 2 of this response. That number of TOR requests is far below the 5,284 times police dogs were apparently used in apprehensions over this period, though.
I also see that part 2 of this response says that all people who were bitten by police dogs (738) during apprehension in this period were injured (76 + 662). However, in the TOR data, only around 90% of TOR events involving dogs resulted in an injury, so I don't think TOR events are only logged in the case where someone is bitten.
[1] https://fyi.org.nz/request/6558-tactical...
[2] https://fyi.org.nz/request/8236-tactical...
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I've had a response from NZ Police via Twitter, where I asked them why no notice of extension had been sent regarding this request. It turns out the answer is that no extension was justified under the OIA:
"Hi Mark,
Have had the below response from Ministerial Services for you:
The response to your OIA is: The OIA in question has been responded to. We did not seek an extension because we did not have grounds to do so (the criteria are in the Act and do not include increased workload pressures). We are working with the Ombudsman on the impact of the events of 15 March on our OIA timeliness as it has effected staff and resources across the organisation."
It's a shame that they didn't decide to let you know how much longer you could expect regardless, given they seem to have realised they were breaking the law in either case.
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I wonder how NZ Police defined "serious" injuries in their response here. They provided this information in response to a question asking about long term and short term injuries, but the criteria they have used to classify injuries were not specified.
NZ Police have said in their response to this request that dog bites caused 76 serious injuries between January 2016 and mid-March 2019. However, TOR data for the much shorter period of July 2016 - December 2017 recorded 60 hospitalisations as a result of police dogs biting people.
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
NZ Police have clearly and unambiguous breached the Official Information Act in their failure to send a notice of extension as soon as reasonably practicable when it became clear to them that their response to this request could not be sent within 20 working days.
I have lodged an OIA request with them on Twitter, asking why no notice of extension was sent: https://twitter.com/HonestUniverse/statu...
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