Manukau Police Assessment Unit
Anatoly Kern made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was partially successful.
From: Anatoly Kern
Dear New Zealand Police,
I have been advised that there is a department within NZ Police, which is "assessing any threat/risk for political figures" referred as "Manukau Police Assessment Unit"
Could you please confirm the existence of this department and if so provide the following information under Official Information Act:
1. Full name of the department and manager name/contact details.
2. Current staff information.
3. List of manuals used by this department in assessment process.
4. Number of people under assessment.
5. Number of people recognized as 'threat'.
I would prefer to receive this information electronically by email via FYI.
I am New Zealand Resident and reside in New Zealand.
Yours faithfully,
Anatoly Kern
New Zealand Police
Dear Anatoly,
Thank you for your email. This will be processed as an Official
Information Act request. I am now forwarding it on to the appropriate team
for proecessing but please note this will not be done until the next
working day which is Tuesday 23 October 2012.
Kind regards
PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM
NZ POLICE
-----Anatoly Kern <[OIA #611 email]> wrote:
-----
To: OIA requests at New Zealand Police <[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: Anatoly Kern <[OIA #611 email]>
Date: 19/10/2012 02:48PM
Subject: Official Information Act request - Manukau Police Assessment
Unit
Dear New Zealand Police,
I have been advised that there is a department within NZ Police,
which is "assessing any threat/risk for political figures" referred
as "Manukau Police Assessment Unit"
Could you please confirm the existence of this department and if so
provide the following information under Official Information Act:
1. Full name of the department and manager name/contact details.
2. Current staff information.
3. List of manuals used by this department in assessment process.
4. Number of people under assessment.
5. Number of people recognized as 'threat'.
I would prefer to receive this information electronically by email
via FYI.
I am New Zealand Resident and reside in New Zealand.
Yours faithfully,
Anatoly Kern
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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show quoted sections
From: THOMSON, Raewyn
New Zealand Police
===============================================================
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: Anatoly Kern
Dear THOMSON, Raewyn,
Thank you for your response.
Per information from Waitemata District Health Board on 7 of August 2012 a person representing himself as Detective Philip Taylor from 'Manukau Assessment Unit' made a call to one of the hospitals and said that he 'is with unit that assess any threat/risk to NZ political figures'.
Could you please provide the information about the role of Detective Philip Taylor and the name of the department where he works?
Yours sincerely,
Anatoly Kern
From: THOMSON, Raewyn
New Zealand Police
Good Afternoon
I am acknowledging receipt of your Official Information Act request.
You will receive a reply in due course
show quoted sections
From: Anatoly Kern
Dear New Zealand Police,
Let's try again.
I refer to the information available publicly on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_In...
This page, through not being an official information from Police has a reference to 'Special methods to Investigate Organized Crime' including a reference to 'The Threat Assessment Unit'
It is described as "Threats - The Threat Assessment Unit investigates threats against police staff, judges and court staff and other investigative agency staff. They respond to counter-terrorist threats or situations. The unit also collects and analyses potential threats to New Zealand and visiting government politicians and officials."
Therefore I would like to request the following information about this Unit (I am not naming it specifically to avoid further abuse of the process by Police):
1. Full name of this Unit/department and manager name/contact details.
2. Current staff information (Positions, headcount, management structure).
3. List of manuals used by this department in assessment process.
4. Current number of people under assessment and historic information for the past 10 years with per year separation.
5. Current number of people recognized as 'threat' and historic information for the past 10 years with per year separation.
6. Unit budget for the past 10 years with per year separation.
7. Clarify the relationship of this Unit with 'Investigation Support Services'.
I would prefer to receive this information electronically by email
via FYI.
I am New Zealand Resident and reside in New Zealand.
Yours faithfully,
Anatoly Kern
Yours sincerely,
Anatoly Kern
From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police
===============================================================
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: Anatoly Kern
Dear MCMAHON, Teresa,
Could you please update me on the progress of this request.
As far as I can see mandatory period to respond within 20 working days from the date of confirmation from 7 of May 2013 ended today.
Yours sincerely,
Anatoly Kern
From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police
I am away from 8am on Tuesday 4 June to 8am Thursday 6 June. For work
matters please contact Raewyn Thomson on 474 9526 or Sally Duffy on 470
7267
From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Kern
Your reply is nearly ready to be sent to you.
show quoted sections
From: MCMAHON, Teresa
New Zealand Police
===============================================================
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
Joshua Grainger left an annotation ()
The s6(c) withholding of the names of the manuals that Threat Assessment Unit uses seems very dodgy to me. For a start, as far as I am aware, the names of all [or at least] most Police manuals have been disclosed in the past in a separate OIA request available on this website, and they seem very mundane. Secondly, it is very unlikely that sensitive information would be in the titles of the manuals. The manuals themselves maybe able to be withheld, but the names? That seems a bit over the top.
It is worth noting that the Ombudsman has said for withholding under s6 "It is not sufficient to simply assert that disclosure of the information will have a prejudicial effect. The public sector agency must be able to identify, with sufficient particularity, the nature of the prejudicial effect and explain how such prejudice will occur in order to meet the tests for withholding in section 6." I'd question whether there has been sufficient particularity given here, as all that has been stated is the section itself, not what exactly drove the Police to apply that section.
I'd think this is one for the Ombudsman.
From: Anatoly Kern
Dear MCMAHON, Teresa,
Thank you for the response provided by Detective Inspector Stuart Allsop-Smith on 6 June 2013.
I would like to comment and request the review of refusal of information requested in questions 3,4,5 as follows:
3. List of manuals used by this department in assessment process.
The list of manuals was released under OIA and available publicly on
https://fyi.org.nz/request/587/response/...
I was expecting to receive a subtract of this previously released list, e.g. "Threats against the Police and the judiciary manual and etc" and very surprised with refusal of the names of this manuals under s6(c).
I note that Ombudsman has said for withholding under s6 "It is not sufficient to simply assert that disclosure of the information will have a prejudicial effect. The public sector agency must be able to identify, with sufficient particularity, the nature of the prejudicial effect and explain how such prejudice will occur in order to meet the tests for withholding in section 6."
The main purpose of my request is to understand what policies/manuals are in use by this department, what powers are given and how members of public are safeguarded from misuse of this powers.
4. Current number of people under assessment and historic information.
5. Current number of people recognized as 'threat' and historic information.
I would be happy with receiving current operational information with the most recent historical information readily available without any substantial collation or research (for the past month/year/whatever is last reported).
Yours sincerely,
Anatoly Kern
Anatoly Kern left an annotation ()
No response to follow up, which is not surprising.
As for the public:
Contrary to the official purpose it looks like Manukau Police Assessment Unit is used for monitoring political opposition and those who raise voice against corrupt processes within New Zealand government.
Katherine Raue left an annotation ()
Thanks for making this request - the response is very revealing indeed. Wairarapa Police threw hundreds of child abuse files in the rubbish bin while they persecuted me for exposing disgraced ex MP Georgina Beyer for the lying thief 'she' is - Police refused to charge Beyer for her role in the fraud, or anyone else for that matter - the other offenders were almost all Councillors or employees of the Carterton District Council - a major funder of the Carterton Community Centre where the fraud occured - in other words they were all political figures. Beyer went a step too far and wrote a letter attempting to influence a Police investigation and there was a vote of no confidence in the government on 13 February 2007. Beyer resigned the following day. The National Business Review noted that there is "an alarming amount of bribery in New Zealand."
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Anatoly Kern left an annotation ()
Last reply is an empty message but with subject "Your request to Police dated 7 May 2013 has been received and is being processed", through subject is not shown on replies on FYI website.
If it is going to be a general practice by government agencies to reply by providing information in subject of response and without any attachments it would be nice to have it reflected on FYI.
Link to this