KEY POINTS:
Chief ombudsman Beverley Wakem has criticised police for withholding information from the year-long Taser trial.
Campaign Against the Taser (CATT) had lodged a complaint with the Ombudsmen's office after police withheld the majority of information from Taser incident reports last year.
CATT spokeswoman Marie Dyhrberg today called for
police to urgently make public the "large amounts" of factual material that were excluded from the reports.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad is currently considering a report on the trial, which finished about eight months ago. The Government is hoping police will make a decision within the next two or three months on whether to adopt the stun guns.
After a year-long trial in Auckland and Wellington ended last year, police said Tasers were desperately needed because they could stop offenders without killing them.
But opponents of the weapon said they were dangerous and had killed people in the United States. The New Zealand guns delivered a lower voltage than those used in the United States.
Ms Wakem had earlier made a provisional decision, but was awaiting response from police and further feedback from the Privacy Commissioner, Marie Shroff.
In a letter today to the Human Rights Foundation, the umbrella organisation for CATT, Ms Wakem said she received feedback from the commissioner but had no response from police.
In the absence of that feedback, Ms Wakem said she had adopted her provisional view as her final finding.
"The police were wrong to withhold the majority of the information at issue," she said.
Once identifying details were removed regarding officers, witnesses and subjects of a Taser use, "it is not necessary to withhold the residual information under any of the withholding grounds raised by police during the course of this investigation".
Ms Wakem said she had made a formal recommendation under the Official Information Act that police now release the previously withheld information, apart from any identifying details.
"I have read the summaries and compared them with the tactical options report accounts. In my view, many of the summaries are extremely brief, and have the overall effect of sanitising the original reports."
Ms Dyhrberg said Mr Broad should delay his decision on the Taser until the public had had the chance to review and comment on all the relevant information about the trial.
"The Ombudsman's decision highlights that the Taser trial has lacked transparency and openness," she said.
Ms Dyhrberg said the Ombudsman's decision emphasised the need for police minister Annette King to be involved in decisions around the Taser.
"If the police can't be relied upon to be open and transparent about the trial they undertook, the minister must step in and exercise responsibility to ensure police are held accountable."
Green Party police spokesman Keith Locke said the Ombudsman was right about the need for more transparency, so the public could assess whether police were "going down the right track".
"The public has the right to know much more about the Taser trial... It's quite easy for police to go beyond their mandate, particularly if protected by secrecy."
- NZPA
