Alteration to police bill

Press, 22 September 1978, Page 4

Alteration to police bill

PA Wellington The Minister of Police (Mr McCready) said last evening that he intended to change a clause in the controversial Police Amendment Bill to remove any genuine Concern.

Mr McCready said that the New Zealand Law Society had suggested the change, and he told Parliament he intended to move an amendment to this clause in the committee stages of the bill. The controversial clause ihad said: “That the Police i Gazette and every notice notice or police circular or 'other document containing I information connected with crime, criminal offenders, or suspected offenders nub- , lished by any member of the ; police and intended by him I for circulation only to memibers of the police ... are

hereby declared to be confidential documents.” Mr McCready said that the new amendment would now say: “That the Police Gazette and every police notice or police circular or other document of a like nature . . .”

The Law Society had suggested the words “of a like nature” be inserted, Mr McCready said.

He said that the Law Society had said it saw nothing insidious in the clause. The present section of the law declared that the Police Gazette should not be produced in court without the written permission of the Commissioner of Police, nor could civil or criminal proceedings be brought based on anything contained in the Police Gazette. Under the new section, the same protection would apply

to police notices, police circulars, and other similar publications containing information about crime, criminal offenders, or suspected offenders.

Mr McCready said that the provisions would raise the penalty for offences under the section from a maximum fine of $lOO to a maximum $5OO fine, or a maximum three months imprisonment.

He said that this was necessary to preserve the confidentiality of such documents, and prevent their circulation outside the police. The Opposition spokesman on justice, Mr D. R. Lange (Mangere), said that the legislation gave a right for material to be kept from the sight of a judge, and in that sense it was wrong. He said that the Government would protect the interests of the police by en-

suring that only necessary documents were kept confidential. There was evidence that the Government was moving towards increased secrecy, and away from freedom of information.

The Opposition accepted that some police documents, such as the Police Gazette, had to be confidential, Mr Lange said.

However, the Opposition did not accept that other police notices and circulars should be confidential. Crown privilege already applied to police documents, he said. In reply to Mr Lange, Mr McCreadv said that any remaining doubts should be removed by the amendment he intended to move in the committee stages. The amendment had the support of the Crown Law Office and the Law Society, he said.