Cudmore and Department of Police

Cudmore and Queensland Police Service
(1999 S0076, 1 February 2000) 

The applicant sought access to copies of documents supplied to People magazine by the respondent in 1995, which resulted in the publication of an article alleging that the applicant and another person had committed several serious offences in Queensland and New South Wales.  The respondent maintained that the information was supplied to the magazine in the course of an interview with the officer in charge of the investigation into the alleged offences, and that no written record was made or kept. 

The Information Commissioner found that there was no evidence that any written record of the interview had ever been made.  The Information Commissioner also found that the respondent could not be compelled under the FOI Act to create a document containing the information given to the magazine (even if the officer involved could accurately recall what had been said).