Friday, September 01, 2017

Utterly unreasonable

Its 2017. So when you send away a request for relatively recent government information - an appendix to a review completed in 2014, say - how do you expect to receive it?

Certainly not like this:
PoliceOIAHardcopy

Hardcopy? PDF on disc? Why not just email it?

Every other appendix to this report is already available online in PDF. This appendix almost certainly exists in the same format. In that context, the police's insistence in providing it only in an antiquated format is utterly unreasonable and seems like both a naked attempt to use cost as a barrier, and to prevent it from ending up on FYI on public view forever. It is, in short, an attempt to thwart the purposes of the Act (and for obvious reasons: because the police framed an innocent man for this crime, were caught, and yet still utterly unrepentant about their perversion of the course of justice). And once again, the Ombudsman needs to teach them to obey the law.