Pearce and Department of Police

Pearce and Queensland Police Service
(2001 S0265, 28 June 2002) 

This review involved a ‘sufficiency of search’ issue relating to documents about a complaint made to police alleging that five motor vehicles had been stolen from a motor vehicle showroom.  Following investigation of the complaint, both the QPS and the Australian Federal Police were satisfied that the five vehicles were subject to a civil dispute, and had not been stolen.  The applicant sought documents relevant to that conclusion by the QPS investigators. During the course of the external review, the QPS undertook two additional searches for relevant documents, but failed to locate any additional documents or information. 

It was established that some documents relating to the QPS's inquiries had been destroyed in accordance with the QPS Records Retention and Disposal Schedule.  Applying the principles set out in Shepherd and Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning (1994) 1 QAR 464, Assistant Commissioner Shoyer decided that the search efforts made by the QPS to locate documents falling within the terms of the applicant's FOI access application had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.