Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Freedom of Information Act 1982 - SECT 31

Law enforcement documents

31. Law enforcement documents



(1) Subject to this section, a document is an exempt document if its
disclosure under this Act would, or would be reasonably likely to-

   (a)  prejudice the investigation of a breach or possible breach of the law
        or prejudice the enforcement or proper administration of the law in a
        particular instance;

   (b)  prejudice the fair trial of a person or the impartial adjudication of
        a particular case;

   (c)  disclose, or enable a person to ascertain, the identity of a
        confidential source of information in relation to the enforcement or
        administration of the law;

   (d)  disclose methods or procedures for preventing, detecting,
        investigating, or dealing with matters arising out of, breaches or
        evasions of the law the disclosure of which would, or would be
        reasonably likely to, prejudice the effectiveness of those methods or
        procedures; or

   (e)  endanger the lives or physical safety of persons engaged in or in
        connection with law enforcement or persons who have provided
        confidential information in relation to the enforcement or
        administration of the law.

(2) This section does not apply to any document that is-

   (a)  a document revealing that the scope of a law enforcement investigation
        has exceeded the limits imposed by law;

   (b)  a document revealing the use of illegal methods or procedures for
        preventing, detecting, investigating, or dealing with matters arising
        out of, breaches or evasions of the law;

   (c)  a document containing any general outline of the structure of any
        programme adopted by an agency for investigating breaches of, or
        enforcing or administering, the law;

   (d)  a report on the degree of success achieved in any programme adopted by
        an agency for investigating breaches of, or enforcing or
        administering, the law;

   (e)  a report prepared in the course of routine law enforcement inspections
        or investigations by an agency which has the function of enforcing and
        regulating compliance with a particular law other than the criminal
        law;

   (f)  a report on a law enforcement investigation, where the substance of
        the report has been disclosed to the person who, or the body which,
        was the subject of the investigation-

if it is in the public interest that access to the document should be granted
under this Act.

(3) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this section, a document is an
exempt document if it is a document created by the Bureau of Criminal
Intelligence or (whether before or after the commencement of section 22 of the
Terrorism (Community Protection) (Further Amendment) Act 2006) by the
Intelligence and Covert Support Department of the police force of Victoria.