Cudmore and Department of Police

Application number:
1998 S0152
Decision date:
Monday, Aug 16, 1999

Cudmore and Queensland Police Service
 (1998 S0152, 16 August 1999) 

The applicant sought review of a decision by the respondent that he was required to pay an application fee of $30.00 for access to documents which conferred authority on two Police Officers to speak to the media concerning the applicant in 1995. 

The applicant contended that there must have been a specific authority given to the Officers to speak to the media, while the respondent maintained that the Officers relied upon the relevant provisions of the respondent's Operational Procedures Manual (OPM), and that the OPM was not a document which concerned the applicant's personal affairs. 

The OPM is approved by the Commissioner of Police under the Police Service Administration Act 1990 Qld, and is an operational document which sets out the responsibilities of, and procedures to be followed by, Police Officers. 

The Information Commissioner found that, regardless of whether any specific authority to speak to the media concerning the applicant did, in fact, exist, there was at least one document in the possession of the respondent (the relevant extract from the OPM) which fell within the terms of the applicant's FOI access application, and which did not concern his personal affairs.  The applicant was therefore required to pay a $30 application fee, and the Information Commissioner affirmed the decision under review.