Drone Documents (San Jose Police Department -- third request)
| Submitted | July 15, 2014 |
MuckRock users can file, duplicate, track, and share public records requests like this one. Learn more.
Communications
From: Shawn Musgrave
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California's Sunshine Amendment (Cal. Const. Art. I, § 3(b)), I hereby request the following records:
All documents created from January 2005 to the date this request is processed related to the agency's use of aerial drones, remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs), remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs), unmanned aerials (UAs), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and/or unmanned aerial systems (UASs)(hereinafter “drones”).
Please note that I previously requested these documents in October 2013 and December 2012 (see https://www.muckrock.com/foi/san-jose-336/drone-documents-san-jose-police-department-8149/ and https://www.muckrock.com/foi/san-jose-336/san-jose-ca-police-drone-documents-2303/). While I received negative answers to both CPRA requests, documents posted on the San Jose City Council website indicate that the SJPD has received a FY2013 UASI award for $8,000 to purchase a UAV for its bomb squad:
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/23693
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/27257
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/23711
In light of the above, please conduct a more thorough search for documents per the below document categories. Please respond to each of the categories and items in turn:
1) Acquisition documents:
i) requests for proposals (RFPs), proposals/quotes submitted by vendors, contracts, leases, budget requests, project/equipment budgets, cost allocations or reimbursements for the purchase of drone equipment;
ii) Grant applications and award letters for drone equipment purchases;
iii) Insurance contracts for all drone equipment;
iv) Communications (including electronic communications) between the agency head or agency quartermaster (or individual responsible for equipment purchases and maintenance) and drone vendors, manufacturers or retailers;
v) Communications (including electronic communications) between the agency head and agency quartermaster (or individual responsible for equipment purchases and maintenance) regarding acquisition, lease or use of drone equipment;
vi) Communications (including electronic communications) between the agency head and the governor, mayor and city/town manager regarding the acquisition of drones;
vii) Applications (including all components and support documentation) for Certificates of Waiver/Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as COA grant notifications and final agreement;
viii) Contracts for services related to drones, such as data storage, data analysis, image storage, image analysis, video storage, video analysis, operation, maintenance;
2) Equipment logs:
i) Inventories/logs/lists/databases of all drones owned, leased or operated by or for the agency;
ii) Maintenance logs for all drones owned, leased or otherwise operated by or for the agency;
3) Policy documents:
i) Policies, guidelines, protocols, manuals and/or instructions on the use/operation of drones and usage of data, images and video obtained from drone flights;
ii) Communications from the agency head, quartermaster (or individual responsible for overseeing equipment purchases and maintenance) on approved uses for drones;
iii) Memorandums of understanding (MOUs), memorandums of agreement (MOAs) or any other agreements or contracts with other government agencies, private corporations, organizations or individuals to share drone equipment, data, images or video or to operate drones on behalf of the agency;
4) Training documents:
i) Curriculum used to train drone operators and observers;
ii) Training log for all drone operators and observers;
iii) Certifications of training completion for all drone operators and observers;
iv) Contracts, purchase orders, budget requests or reimbursement orders for training sessions for all drone operators and observers;
5) Usage documents:
i) Flight logs for all drone flights, including training flights;
ii) Flight logs transmitted to the Federal Aviation Administration pursuant to Certificate of Waiver/Authorization (COA) requirements;
iii) Reprimands relating to drones, including misuse of equipment and failure to properly maintain equipment.
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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,
Shawn Musgrave
From: Becker, Tamara
Mr. Musgrave,
The City has received your public records request. I will follow up with the police department to determine if there are records responsive to your request.
Tamara Becker
Open Government Manager
From: Becker, Tamara
From: Becker, Tamara <Tamara.Becker@sanjoseca.gov>
Date: Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 5:07 PM
Subject: PRA Update
To: Shawn Musgrave <shawn@muckrock.com>
I received notification from the PD that they anticipate being able to
complete their response to your request related to the UAV no later than
July 25th. I have asked them to contact you directly. I will be monitoring
emails during my absence but you should feel free to communicate directly
with the PD if you have other questions.
I am not anticipating any problems but wanted to let you know about the
appeals process, just in case (from www.sanjoseca.gov)...
*If you believe that you have been inappropriately denied access to City
of San José public records, you may appeal that denial by contacting:*
*The City’s Open Government Manager by email, *
*PublicRecordsRequest@sanjoseca.gov* <PublicRecordsRequest@sanjoseca.gov>*,
or by calling (408) 535-8120 <%28408%29%20535-8120>.*
*The City Council Rules and Open Government Committee: for more
information, contact the Office of the City Clerk by email, *
*cityclerk@sanjoseca.gov* <cityclerk@sanjoseca.gov>*, or by calling (408)
535-1260 <%28408%29%20535-1260>. *
Take care,
Tamara Becker
Open Government Manager
From: Shawn Musgrave
Ms. Becker -
Thank you for the update.
-Shawn
From: Monique Villarreal
From: Villarreal, Monique <Monique.Villarreal@sanjoseca.gov>
Date: Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 3:23 PM
Subject: RE: MEDIA INQUIRY: SJPD drone and CPRA request
To: Shawn Musgrave <shawn@muckrock.com>
Cc: "Randol, Heather" <HEATHER.RANDOL@sanjoseca.gov>, "Morales, Albert" <ALBERT.MORALES@sanjoseca.gov>, "Becker, Tamara" <Tamara.Becker@sanjoseca.gov>
Mr. Musgrave,
In response to your request for public records on July 15, 2014, please refer to the attached response and associated documents.
Regards,
Monique Villarreal
San Jose Police Department
Office of the Chief, Research & Development
201 W. Mission Street, San Jose, CA 95110
Direct: 408.537.1656, Main: 408.277.5200
From: Capaldo, Kara
Mr. Musgrave,
Please see a supplemental response to your request for public records on
July 15, 2014. Please also see the additional attached documents.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Kara Capaldo
Senior Analyst
Research and Development Unit
San Jose Police Department
Office of the Chief, Research & Development
201 W. Mission Street, San Jose, CA 95110
Direct: 408.537.1656, Main: 408.277.5200
*From:* Villarreal, Monique
*Sent:* Friday, July 25, 2014 12:22 PM
*To:* 'Shawn Musgrave'
*Cc:* Randol, Heather; Morales, Albert; Becker, Tamara
*Subject:* RE: MEDIA INQUIRY: SJPD drone and CPRA request
Mr. Musgrave,
In response to your request for public records on July 15, 2014, please
refer to the attached response and associated documents.
Regards,
*Monique Villarreal*
San Jose Police Department
Office of the Chief, Research & Development
201 W. Mission Street, San Jose, CA 95110
Direct: 408.537.1656, Main: 408.277.5200
*From:* shawnmusgrave@gmail.com [mailto:shawnmusgrave@gmail.com
<shawnmusgrave@gmail.com>] *On Behalf Of *Shawn Musgrave
*Sent:* Tuesday, July 15, 2014 4:06 PM
*To:* Becker, Tamara
*Cc:* Villarreal, Monique; Capaldo, Kara; Randol, Heather; Morales, Albert
*Subject:* Re: MEDIA INQUIRY: SJPD drone and CPRA request
Ms. Becker -
Thank you for your response, which I will pass along to my editors for
incorporation into the article as an update. I look forward to receiving
documents in response to my CPRA request. Please note that the request
includes several sections beyond procurement/acquisition.
Best,
Shawn
On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Becker, Tamara <Tamara.Becker@sanjoseca.gov>
wrote:
Mr. Musgrave,
Your initial request last fall was forwarded to the San Jose Police
Department Research and Development Unit. We have since found that last
fall the R&D Unit was not aware of the UASI grant request that had been
submitted by another unit of the Police Department.
A UASI-funded staff member of the department had worked with staff last
year to identify equipment needs that might be eligible for federal funding
through UASI. This led to a comprehensive project and budget summary
totaling nearly $1 million which was submitted directly to the UASI
regional committee for review and prioritization last year. The R&D Unit
was not aware of this grant request at the time of your request.
Following your initial request in October 2013 regarding any San
Jose procurement of a UAV, R&D checked the with the appropriate staff in
the Police Department regarding any relevant vendor payments or
documentation for such a purchase. Since UASI grant funding had not
yet been approved, either by UASI or by the City Council, no purchase had
been made, and therefore they found no purchasing documents that would have
been responsive at the time of your request.
The Police Department Fiscal Unit has now confirmed that the City has used
$8000 of the $983,000 UASI grant to purchase a single UAV in January 2014
for use by the San Jose Police Bomb Squad to use in hazardous situations.
This purchase was made following the Council approval of the grant in
November 2013. The Department will continue to check for other documents
responsive to your request.
Tamara Becker
Open Government Manager
------------------------------
*From:* shawnmusgrave@gmail.com <shawnmusgrave@gmail.com> on behalf of
Shawn Musgrave <shawn@muckrock.com>
*Sent:* Tuesday, July 15, 2014 8:56 AM
*To:* Villarreal, Monique; Becker, Tamara; Andrade, Veronica; Randol,
Heather; Morales, Albert
*Subject:* Re: MEDIA INQUIRY: SJPD drone and CPRA request
Hello again,
At minimum, I'm looking to confirm whether SJPD has purchased its UAV to
date.
-Shawn
On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Shawn Musgrave <shawn@muckrock.com> wrote:
Hello,
I am seeking comment for an article to be printed in Motherboard/VICE
pertaining to the SJPD's approval to purchase a drone for its bomb squad.
This article will be published early this afternoon, so I would request
prompt reply.
Documents posted on the San Jose City Council contradict a CPRA response I
received in October 2013, the month after the UASI awards were finalized
for the FY2013 award SJPD received for the UAV.
In October 2013, MuckRock submitted a CPRA request for a variety of
categories of documents pertaining to unmanned aerial vehicles (see
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/san-jose-336/drone-documents-san-jose-police-department-8149/).
This request specifically included a line item for grant documents. Ms.
Villarreal replied on October 16, 2013:
"Our Department does not use aerial drones, remotely piloted vehicles
(RPVs), remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs), unmanned aerials (UAs), unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs), and/or unmanned aerial systems (UASs), nor does our
Fiscal Unit have any records related to these items."
Documents posted on the San Jose City Council website indicate that the
SJPD received a FY2013 UASI award for $8,000 to purchase a UAV for its bomb
squad:
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/23693
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/27257
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/23711
Given that DHS UASI projects were approved in September 2013 (and that Bay
Area UASI proposals were due several months earlier), please clarify why
SJPD did not provide documents in response to my October 2013 CPRA request.
Best,
Shawn Musgrave
Files
pages