California Public Records Act Request: SB1421 Records 2022
| Submitted | July 22, 2022 |
MuckRock users can file, duplicate, track, and share public records requests like this one. Learn more.
Communications
From: Hanisha Harjani
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
To whom it may concern,
This is a public records request made via Muckrock under the California Public Records Act (§ 6250 et seq.), seeking records related to incidents of the use of force, sexual assault and dishonesty at law enforcement agencies, that are made disclosable under California Penal Code §§ 832.7 and 832.8, as modified by SB1421.
This request is brought by the California Reporting Project, a collaboration of 40 news organizations including KQED, Bay Area News Group, Southern California News Group, the Investigative Reporting Project at UC Berkeley, Capital Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, San Francisco Chronicle and The Los Angeles Times. The California Reporting Project (“CRP”) is headquartered at Stanford University, and engages in the dissemination of information to the public.
The records we’re seeking related to your oversight of law enforcement agencies concern four categories of incidents, any and all of which incidents occurred on or after January 1, 2014:
* SEXUAL ASSAULT: incidents where a sustained finding was made by any agency that a peace officer or custodial officer engaged in sexual assault involving a member of the public.
* DISHONESTY: incidents where a sustained finding of dishonesty was made by any agency against a peace officer or custodial officer.
* USE OF FORCE RESULTING IN DEATH/FATAL OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING: incidents where the use of force by a peace officer or custodial officer against a person resulted in death.
* USE OF FORCE RESULTING IN SERIOUS BODILY INJURY/NON-FATAL OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING: incidents where the use of force by a peace officer or custodial officer against a person resulted in great bodily injury. For clarity, we include in this category all incidents where a peace officer discharged a firearm, whether someone got injured or not.
For these categories of incidents, we request several types of documents:
* Records related to your oversight of and the investigation of these use-of-force incidents, and incidents of misconduct; including
* Public records requests initiated by your office at other public agencies in California, related to the investigation of these categories of incidents; and
* Correspondence among your office, other district attorneys’ offices, and agencies related to your oversight and investigation of the categories of incidents described above.
Date Range. As you may know, this news coalition has filed previous requests, for records spanning a five-year time period (2014-2018, filed in 2019), and for records released in 2019 and 2020. With this update, we’re trying to make sure that we request and receive records related to every incident since January 1, 2014.
Request for Index. If your agency possesses an index or list of records the agency has determined are responsive to SB 1421, this request also seeks production of that index or list. Such an index will allow CRP and your agency to check together that CRP has received everything that is responsive.
Open Investigations. Your office may have withheld records in previous years, when investigations were active. Please now produce any records related to investigations that have concluded in 2021 or since our last request. To avoid confusion, please identify any ongoing investigations that are not yet disclosable but will be upon completion.
Severability. If some information we requested is not immediately available, we ask that whatever records are immediately available be turned over first. Each element requested should be considered severable for purposes of invoking a time extension or exemption under either local or state law.
Preference for Electronic Records. We seek all records in any format that you hold them. For documents that can be provided in electronic and/or searchable formats, such as Word documents, we are happy to correspond to figure out what would be the easiest or best way to provide the requested records.
All Records in Your Possession. We seek all of the relevant records you hold, and after the 2020 ruling in Becerra v Superior Court (44 Cal.App.5th 897), we emphasize that state law requires production of all responsive records whether your agency created them or not.
Audio & Visual Records. We recognize that producing significant quantities of audio and visual records may take time. Acknowledging that, while we retain our right to these records, we welcome information about the format and volume of these records, to inform development of a reasonable production schedule.
Lastly, we draw your attention to Government Code §6253.1, which requires a public agency to helps us to make a focused and effective request by (1) identifying records and information that are responsive, (2) describing either the information technology where the records are held, or the physical location (if records aren’t electronic), and (3) providing suggestions for overcoming any practical issues. See also Cmty. Youth Athletic Ctr. v. City of Nat'l City, 220 Cal. App. 4th 1385, 1417 (2013) (agencies have a duty to “assist[] the requester in formulating reasonable requests”).
We’re happy to receive clarifications and questions via electronic communication at any time. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this matter.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Hanisha Harjani
From: Los Angeles County District Attorney
Hi Kim,
Got it.
Thanks
D
-
~WRD000
From: Los Angeles County District Attorney
Good morning:
This appears to be a duplicate CRP request to the one dated January 3, 2022?
Do we need to upload records to both accounts, or can we continue to use the first one only?
Regards,
Michael Dean
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
From: Los Angeles County District Attorney
Dear California Reporting Project:
Please see the attached letter and document.
Yours truly,
Michael Dean
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
From: Los Angeles County District Attorney
Dear California Reporting Project:
Please see the attached documents.
Yours truly,
Michael Dean
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
There are too many files to display on this communication. See all files
Files
pages
