Job Number for case involving damage of public sand sculpture
Dear Alice Springs Town Council,
I am writing to you to make a freedom of information request under The Freedom of Information Act 1982 for the job number pertaining to the case in which you are prosecuting a person/s for damage to a council contracted sand sculpture for YAM Fest that occurred on the evening of Tuesday the 11th October 2016.
As the artist contracted to make this sculpture, I have information that is relevant to the case that ought to have the possibility to be considered.
Yours faithfully,
Anna McCauley
Good Morning Ms McCauley,
Please find attached an email from the NR Police, Fire and Emergency Services.
Unfortunately they were unable to identify the matter and a promise number was not available.
Kind Regards,
Rae-Ellen Swindells
Administration Assistant
Alice Springs Town Council
Phone: 08 89500518
Fax: 08 89530558
email: [email address]
Dear Rae-Ellen Swindells,
Thank-you for your response, the case I referred to in my request has been correctly identified so I require no further information to identify the incident, only the job number pertaining to it. I would greatly appreciate it if you could follow up on the job number from the relevant council officers. As the prosecutors they should have it on record or access to it through the NT Police. If for some reason, there is no job number despite charges being pressed, could you clarify why that is? To broaden the scope of my question I will rephrase it and request the job number of any report relating to a Sand Sculpture Cockatoo on 11 October 2016.
If the job number is not available as the case it refers to has already been heard in court, I would appreciate that information too.
Yours sincerely,
Anna McCauley
Anna McCauley left an annotation ()
Thank-you Luke, your suggestions were clarifying- very helpful
Anna
Hi Anna,
Council has reviewed this request and no further information pertaining to this incident can be obtained.
No job number can be found for this incident either through the police or Council Officers.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.
Kind Regards,
Rae-Ellen Swindells
Administration Assistant
Alice Springs Town Council
Phone: 08 89500518
Fax: 08 89530558
email: [email address]
Luke Bacon left an annotation ()
This is an interesting response.
Rae-Ellen, Administration Assistant from Alice Springs Town Council, says:
> Unfortunately they [NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services] were unable to identify the matter and a promise number was not available.
Rae-Ellen has attached an email from Jenni, Manager of the Information Access Team at NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services. Jenni is responding to Rae-Ellen’s email describing the incident and asking for the job number on behalf of the requester Anna (included beneath the response). Rae-Ellen writes:
> Council is trying to obtain a promise number / job number from an incident that was report in October 2016.
>
> - Vandalism of the Sand Sculpture Cockatoo – 11th October 2016
> - Located outside of information centre in the Todd Mall
> - Reported to police by Mr Scott Allen – about the same time
> - Request by Council to NT Police to press charges against the individual and seek restitution of cost incurred.
>
> Unfortunately this is the only information that I have in regard to this incident – however if you do require further information please let me know and I will contact the relevant Council officers involved to obtain it for you.
That seems like quite a lot of information with which to identify an incident, and Rae-Ellen is also offering to give more information if required.
Jenni replies:
> I am unable to identify a matter fitting the below description reported by Scott Allen in October 2016.
How many incidents involving a "Sand Scultpre Cockatoo" could have occurred on 11 October 2016? Does this mean that possibly the incident was reported by someone else?
Rae-Ellen’s description makes it clear that the Council did make a report to the police and a request to press charges. So what happened to the records? Maybe there are records but no job number? That seems odd for a police matter.
If there is a record of the incident, but it is simply listed as being reported by someone other that Scott Allen, Jenni could help Rae-Ellen or Anna by suggesting they rephrase the scope of their request.
To clarify things, the requester might like to send a follow up email asking about this stuff. You could ask for "the job number of any report relating of a Sand Sculpture Cockatoo on 11 October 2016", and see what turns up.