Judge cites 'appalling lapse of judgment'
A member of New Zealand police was sentenced to 80 hours of community work for using the country's intelligence application to obtain information sought by her friend.
Kayla Watson, who was the acting manager for the police's crime reporting line, accessed the National Intelligence Application (NIA) to look into information about her friend's alleged neighbouring harassers.
The NIA is the police's record system that stores information of millions of New Zealanders, The New Zealand Herald reported. Access to such confidential information would require a clearance and would need auditing to ensure that the information is not for personal use.
Watson used the NIA after her friend reported issues in their neighbourhood, including letterboxes and vehicles getting damaged, as well as residents getting harassed by people from within the area.
Watson not only accessed the NIA as per her friend's request, but she also took photos of the data she found and sent them to her friend, who later posted them on a Facebook chat group, The NZ Herald reported, citing the police summary of facts it obtained.
At least five people saw the photos posted on Facebook before they were later taken down, according to the report.
Watson was placed on restrictive duties under the police, The NZ Herald reported, but she returned within a month. She has also pleaded guilty to dishonestly accessing a computer system, according to the report.
Watson's lawyer, Todd Simmonds, called for a discharge without conviction for his client, noting that the consequences to her employment were enough punishment.
The Crown's lawyer, however, wanted Watson convicted while pointing out an "element of premeditation" in her situation, according to the report.
In addition, the Herald reported that the Crown's lawyer stressed the harm Watson caused to the community and the damage it caused to police trust.
In her ruling, Judge Penelope Ginnen refused to give Watson a discharge without conviction, agreeing that she breached privacy and the trust granted to her when she was assigned to her position.
"It was an appalling lapse of judgment on your part. But I do take into account that you didn't do this for personal gain and you didn't know your friend would share the information with the chat group," Ginnen said in her decision.
The judge also disagreed that Watson's actions were "premeditated," as argued by the Crown's lawyer.
"It is my view there was not a great deal of premeditation, it was a spontaneous decision and you acted on it with too little thought," she said.
Ginnen sentenced Watson to 80 hours of community work after considering her early guilty plea, lack of criminal history, as well as her record after working eight years for the police, The NZ Herald reported.
