KEY POINTS:
Hundreds of people clicked "edit" and told the police anonymously online how they should do their job.
The use of Wikipedia-type software to "have a conversation with New Zealand" when legislation governing the police was being overhauled went so well that the NZ force is passing on how it did it to foreign law makers.
The team who ran a "wiki Act" consultation last year have fielded calls from the Japanese Diet, from Germany, the British House of Commons, and the Department of Homeland Security in the US. The French Law Commission has also cited the New Zealand experiment in its publications.
The use of the internet was seen as complementary to traditional methods of consultation on law changes like public meetings, radio advertising and calls for submissions.
The review was of the Police Act 1958 and Police Regulations 1992. A new law is currently making its way through the parliamentary process.
Project manager Superintendent Hamish McCardle will brief the State Services Commission next month on the use of wiki software to engage people.
"There were edits around the substance of the act directed at improving police," he said.
"But there was a second tranche of discourse that went in another direction that was all about e-governance and cyber-governance and what the future might be for making laws through an open forum."
In essence the discussion was about the thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if the people who are governed by laws actually got to write them themselves". And about what ethics that raised and what integrity laws would have if it happened.
The interest from overseas institutions was about the process of consultation rather than what the law changes were.
Mr McCardle said even though the law was now being considered by Parliament, the use of wiki-type tools was continuing to create interest.
The wiki contributors were anonymous so police don't know if they got feedback from criminals.
Many of the suggestions were original but not all of them made it into the proposed law changes. One suggestion was that members of the Order of New Zealand meet regularly with police to be a sounding board for policy. The order is limited to 20 people and members included Sir Edmund Hillary before his death.
- NZPA
