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]
[2]wordmark transparent
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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[3][FOI #9620 email]
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[5] https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
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page.
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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
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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
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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]
-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Garlick [mailto:[FOI #9620 email]]
Sent: Saturday, 23 March 2019 4:24 p.m.
To: FOUNTAIN, Nicholas <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Official Information request - Information on use of police dogs
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
-----Original Message-----
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]
[2]wordmark transparent
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[3][FOI #9620 email]
Is [4][New Zealand Police request email] the wrong address for Official Information requests to New Zealand Police? If so, please contact us using this form:
[5] https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[6] https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #9620 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================
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
hide 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
===============================================================
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
References
Visible links
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.
Things to do with this request
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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...
Link to this