Sandy Springs, GA PD Citizen Complaints
| Submitted | Aug. 18, 2017 |
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Communications
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records 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.
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 3 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 18, 2017. 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: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 18, 2017. 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: Worsham, Samuel
We have received your request for data regarding officer complaints. I have passed the request to our office of internal affairs as they maintain the data you are looking for. I do not have a timeframe on when the data will be provided to you.
Sergeant Sam Worsham
Sandy Springs Police Department
Public Information Officer
SWorsham@Sandyspringsga.gov<mailto:SWorsham@Sandyspringsga.gov>
770-551-3316 (Office)
________________________________
This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the original message (including attachments). The City of Sandy Springs is a public entity subject to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated ?? 50-18-70 to 50-18-76 concerning public records. Email is covered under such laws and thus may be subject to disclosure.
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
Thank you for the update.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 18, 2017. 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: Cain, Benjie
This is a test email to ensure this is the right location to send information reference an open records request that was filed?
Benjie Cain
Captain
Sandy Springs Police Department
7840 Roswell Road, Suite 301
Sandy Springs, Georgia 30350
770-551-3309
bcain@sandyspringsga.gov<mailto:bcain@sandyspringsga.gov>
________________________________
This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the original message (including attachments). The City of Sandy Springs is a public entity subject to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated ?? 50-18-70 to 50-18-76 concerning public records. Email is covered under such laws and thus may be subject to disclosure.
This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the original message (including attachments). The City of Sandy Springs is a public entity subject to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated §§ 50-18-70 to 50-18-76 concerning public records. Email is covered under such laws and thus may be subject to disclosure.
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 18, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
We still have not received any information, nor have we received a status update for nearly 9 months.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Sandy Springs Police Department
To Whom It May Concern,
First of all, I apologize for dropping the ball on this. I had recently taken over Internal Affairs when your open records request (ORR) was originally sent and it got lost in my day to day activities of learning the position. Please find attached hereto the officer complaint logsheets going back 10 years (per number 1 on your ORR request).
We do not differentiate between officer complaints and citizen complaints, so that info would also be included in the above (per ORR number 2). I will add to that though by saying that I can only remember a handful of complaints that have been filed by officers, definitely less than a dozen total).
We have been involved in exactly four shootings in the past ten year period. Two of the shootings involved officers firing into a vehicle that was actively attempting to run them over. One of these involved the driver being shot in the leg, and the other was a miss altogether. One of the other shootings involved an officer shooting an individual who pulled a gun on him, but he did not hit the subject. The fourth shooting involved two officers shooting a suspect who pulled a gun on them. The suspect was hit. None of the four shootings resulted in a fatality. All four shootings were investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and all four shootings were deemed to be appropriate. None of the four shootings resulted in disciplinary actions (per ORR request number 3).
We do not publish this information on a public venue (per ORR request number 4).
I hope this answers all of your questions. The City of Sandy Springs has since changed the way we record open records requests. If any follow up questions are in need of OR attention, I refer you to our city website at sandyspringsga.gov, and the ORR instructions contained there on.
Thank you,
Captain Benjie Cain
Sandy Springs Police
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
Thank you very much.
Could you please provide the year for each of the officer involved shooting situations you mentioned?
Very Respectfully, -Alex Cartwright
From: Sandy Springs Police Department
2008, 2009, 2009, and 2016 respectively.
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
Hi,
Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
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