A damning internal police document has emerged that appears to show senior officers discussed not releasing embarrassing details about the "ghost crimes" controversy in which 700 burglaries vanished from official crime statistics.
The document, released under urgency to the Herald on Sunday after an anonymous tip-off, reaches to the top of the police force and has led to calls for an independent inquiry into the recoding controversy. It has also sparked division among top officers in the Counties Manukau district.
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The memo, known within police as a job sheet, states John Tims had been advised by then-deputy commissioner Bush and assistant commissioner Allan Boreham not to respond to the request. Brady wrote: "(Tims) had been advised to let the request sit and when and if (3rd Degree) followed up with a request the matter would be addressed then.
"The direction to me was to not respond to the Official Information Act request and file the file as it is."
The police officers who gave that order - including Commissioner Mike Bush - claim it was all a (hugely convenient) misunderstanding. But from the requester's story, it is clear that the police delayed the request and systematically lied about it. Which simply isn't acceptable. Those responsible need to lose their jobs. Those charged with upholding the law cannot be allowed to flout it in this way.
But employment sanctions aren't enough. In Canada, its a crime punishable by two years imprisonment to destroy, falsify, or conceal information to undermine an AIA request, or to order or advise anyone to do the same. We should do the same here. At the least, it would provide those given unlawful orders like Tims with secure ground in refusing them.