Price and Department of Police

Price and Queensland Police Service
(2004 F0227, 26 July 2004) 

Whether a valid application – application for review not proceeded with under s.77(1) – sufficiency of search

The applicant applied to the QPS in very general terms for a range of documents.  The QPS sought clarification from the applicant, under s.25(2) of the FOI Act , in relation to some parts of his request but was not satisfied that the applicant's response would enable it to identify relevant documents and refused to process the request.  The QPS also refused to accept an application for internal review as it did not consider the application valid.  The applicant applied for external review of the decision not to process the application. 

Assistant Commissioner Moss found that certain parts of the applicant's request did not form a valid application for access under s.25(2) of the FOI Act, and that the QPS was not required to deal with those parts.  AC Moss also decided not to deal further with other parts of the application, under s.77(1) of the FOI Act, on the ground that the applicant was seeking access to documents which had been the subject of previous reviews by the Information Commissioner or his delegates.  In respect of the final part of the application, AC Moss decided that there were no reasonable grounds for believing that the QPS held any responsive documents, and that the searches and inquiries by the QPS had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.