San Antonio, TX PD Citizen Complaints
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | Aug. 4, 2018 |
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Communications
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. This project requires us to request data from your department. If you have questions about this request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
I am writing to follow up on my original request made on 8/17/17
Thank you very much for providing the information we requested. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with. What constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department? For example, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Some include all discharges and some exclude missed shots. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.
Very Respectfully, Alex Cartwright
Here is the original request:
We have your annual report for 2010-2015; if you could please send that report for 2007-2009 and 2016, then you may omit #1 from our request.
1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
3. What is the annual number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.
Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).
Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.
4. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.
Collecting this information is very important to our research, so we would like to emphasize, if you have questions about my request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
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 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Texas Public Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 4, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: San Antonio Police Department
Good Morning:
The attached email and responsive documents were sent to you on 10/13/2017 at 1:37 p.m. You may want to check your spam folder within your email account. This is usually the culprit for missed email responses. I have provided the attachments to this email for your convenience. Thank you and have a nice day.
Respectfully,
Linda
Linda S. Flores
Sr. Management Analyst
Open Records Office
San Antonio Police Department
315 S. Santa Rosa Ave, suite 1051
San Antonio, Texas 78207
210-207-7320 ext. 77551
Linda.flores@sanantonio.gov<mailto:Linda.flores@sanantonio.gov>
[Description: cid:image001.png@01D3B231.116CF010][Description: https://uploads.mycusthelp.com/SANANTONIO/cosa_quatrefoil_TEXAS.PNG]
The SAPD Mission Statement:
“The San Antonio Police Department is dedicated to improving the quality of life by creating a safe environment in partnership with the people we serve. We act with integrity to reduce fear and crime while treating all with respect, compassion, and fairness.”
City of San Antonio, Texas CORE Values:
TEAMWORK | INTEGRITY | INNOVATION | PROFESSIONALISM
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
I am writing to follow up on my original request made on 8-4-18
Thank you very much for providing the information we requested. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with. What constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department? For example, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Some include all discharges and some exclude missed shots. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.
Furthermore, The complaint data you provided is not usable since it is not in the format we requested. We need to know complaints on an annual basis – for example complaints in 2013, 2012, etc., for the previous 10 years. You provided us with the total number of complaints for the past 10 years. Sorry for any miscommunication on my end.
Very Respectfully, Alex Cartwright
From: San Antonio Police Department
Good Afternoon:
Yes Sir, you asked this same question on July 2, 2018 and I replied on July 3, 2018 with this response: Please be advised the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) does not consider shots fired at animals as officer-involved shootings (OIS). The SAPD does include all officer involved firearm discharges at a suspect as an OIS. This includes whether the officer is on or off-duty. All other cases are handled on a case by case basis. I hope you will find this information to successfully clarify the responsive records you received for request W185944.
In regards to going back 10 years, we attempted to go back 10 years but the data was not consistently tracked. Therefore, we provided you with all the information in the various formats it had been tracked throughout the years. We only had the data for 2008, 2009 and 2016 tracked as a whole. The attached information you have been provided is all of the information we have available. I am sorry we could not better meet your needs.
Respectfully,
Linda
Linda S. Flores
Sr. Management Analyst
Open Records Office
San Antonio Police Department
315 S. Santa Rosa Ave, suite 1051
San Antonio, Texas 78207
210-207-7320 ext. 77551
Linda.flores@sanantonio.gov<mailto:Linda.flores@sanantonio.gov>
[Description: cid:image001.png@01D3B231.116CF010][Description: https://uploads.mycusthelp.com/SANANTONIO/cosa_quatrefoil_TEXAS.PNG]
The SAPD Mission Statement:
“The San Antonio Police Department is dedicated to improving the quality of life by creating a safe environment in partnership with the people we serve. We act with integrity to reduce fear and crime while treating all with respect, compassion, and fairness.”
City of San Antonio, Texas CORE Values:
TEAMWORK | INTEGRITY | INNOVATION | PROFESSIONALISM
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