Devine and Department of Police

Devine and Queensland Police Service
(1998 S0078, 27 April 1999) 

This was a 'sufficiency of search' case in respect of e-mails sent and received by a QPS officer for the purposes of a coronial investigation.  The Information Commissioner found that such documents once existed but that, having regard to evidence that they had been deleted without hard copies being retained, there were no reasonable grounds to believe that further copies of the e-mails existed in the possession or control of the QPS.  The Information Commissioner also found that the searches conducted by the QPS had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.