February 26, 2017
Police stance was to not answer questions over details of euthanasia checkpoint
Police withheld information about a controversial operation because it would only open them up to further questions, emails reveal.
But the stance – outlined in internal emails – has been defended by police, because which say revealing too much information could jeopardise ongoing inquiries or future court cases.
In late 2016 Police ran Operation Painter, which saw officers visiting people who had considered euthanasia.
Head of Exit International Philip Nitschke says the emails show a police culture of secerecy.
It later turned out police collected the names and addresses of many of the people, largely older women, by setting up a breath-testing roadblock down the road from a Hutt Valley euthanasia meeting.
Now, an Official Information Act request shows Wellington’s top police officer, Wellington City area commander Chris Bensemann, emailed his media team telling them to withhold information requested by Stuff about the operation.
Questions emailed to police in the days before included a request for comment about claims police had set up an operation, codenamed Painter, and were targeting Exit members.
The police media team emailed Bensemann in October, asking him if he wanted to add any comment more than confirmation one woman had been charged with importing a euthanasia drug.
Bensemann responded: “I don’t see any merit in providing further comment at this point in time as it will only open us up to further questions, ie, each response would just create a whole new set of questions”.
He asked to be informed if “anything comes up that you see as a risk that we may be forced to [respond] to”.
Some details of the woman facing charges were withheld due to suppression orders, police said.
A police spokeswoman on Thursday said media had an important role in informing the public and ensuring transparency.
“Equally, however, Police have a duty to investigate thoroughly and carefully, and so are at times not in a position to answer specific questions while investigations and operations are ongoing, even if that information may be considered to be speculative, as further comment may jeopardise Police’s ongoing inquiries or potential future judicial proceedings.
“These considerations therefore dictate how we respond to each request we receive. ”
Later that month Bensemann confirmed that police had used the breath-testing checkpoint to target people who had attended an Exit International euthanasia meeting.
Police referred themselves to the Independent Police Conduct Authority, which is still investigating the operation.
Exit International director Philip Nitschke said the email trail showed New Zealand police were “actively trying to dampen down public interest in their behaviour following their illegal fake road block”.
Bensemann’s instructions to provide no further comment was “particularly disappointing” and revealed “a culture of secrecy” within police, Nitschke said.
On Friday, Exit Wellington co-ordinator Susan Dale Austen, 65, is due to appear in Wellington District Court facing one charge of importing the narcotic sedative pentobarbitone – known as Nembutal – between March 2012 and October 2016, and one of importing on September 30.
When she last appeared in court in October she was remanded without plea.