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A former Rotorua police telephonist has been accused of misusing the New Zealand Police computer system.
Maxine Valerie Griffiths, 43, has not entered a plea to wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice by providing information from the New Zealand Police computer system.
The charge alleges she accessed the system, known as NIA (National Intelligence Application) between October 17 and December 3 last year. Her appearance in court this week has coincided with a call from Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff for tighter control over the use of NIA.
NIA is a massive database holding information on New Zealanders. It replaced the Wanganui computer.
Griffiths was employed as a telephonist at the Rotorua police station at the time of the alleged offence but has since left.
Bay of Plenty police district commander Superintendent Gary Smith confirmed she no longer worked for the police.
Griffiths is on bail until a pre-depositions hearing on October 3.
"All I can say is matters came to our attention and there was an investigation. The charges relate to something that allegedly occurred when she was in our employment."
Mr Smith said the police's policy about the use of NIA was very clear.
"It is to be used for police business only."
He said the police had the ability to monitor staff use of the computer system to ensure NIA was being used for the rightful purpose. He could not confirm whether the charges came about as a result of random checks of all staff.
However, he did say it was extremely rare for police staff to misuse NIA - especially when it leads to a criminal charge. Figures released this month showed five police staff have lost their jobs and 20 have been formally disciplined for using the police national database to find out information about law-abiding New Zealanders. None of those cases resulted in criminal charges being brought.
The figures, obtained under the Official Information Act, prompted calls from Ms Shroff for tighter controls to stop police staff snooping in the computer system for non-police business. She said the police staff could be accessing files for non-sinister things such as finding out about a potential business partner or checking their daughter's new boyfriend. Most cases came to the attention of police as a result of complaints from people whose files had been accessed while others were a result of monitoring NIA's use.
- DAILY POST
