Tri-Valley CA Emails Mentioning Extremist Groups 2021-2023

Dear Bryan Tor,
Thank you for submitting a Public Records Request. Staff will review the request and provide a response. Please be advised that our agency has 10 days to respond to the request. If you are requesting hard copies, additional cost of photocopying and postage may be incurred.

Hello Bryan Tor,

The Alameda County Social Services Agency received your PRA request dated March 19, 2023. It appears to be a duplicate from your request dated March 3, 2023. Please refer to the Agency's response sent to you on March 9, 2023 (PDF attached).

Andrea Wong
Public Records Requests | Office of Public Affairs and Community Relations
Alameda County Social Services Agency
E-mail: ssapra@acgov.org<mailto:ssapra@acgov.org>
Webform: https://www.alamedacountysocialservices.org/contact-us/public-records-request

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission may contain privileged information and/or confidential information only for the use by the intended recipients. Any usage, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person, other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited and may be subject to civil action and/or criminal penalties. If you have received this email transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the transmission.

Dear Mr. Tor,

The Social Services Agency already informed you in our March 14, 2023 response the contact information for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. Since you confirmed that your request is directed at that agency, please follow up with Sheriff’s Office directly.

Andrea Wong
Public Records Requests | Office of Public Affairs and Community Relations
Alameda County Social Services Agency
E-mail: ssapra@acgov.org<mailto:ssapra@acgov.org>
Webform: https://www.alamedacountysocialservices.org/contact-us/public-records-request

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission may contain privileged information and/or confidential information only for the use by the intended recipients. Any usage, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person, other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited and may be subject to civil action and/or criminal penalties. If you have received this email transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the transmission.

Dear Mr. Tor,

Regarding your request for “Extremist Group” emails, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office would not be the custodian of Tri-Valley emails. Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton, San Ramon, the Town of Danville, Alamo, Blackhawk and Diablo would be the custodian of those emails. Are you asking for ACSO to search as well? Your subject has the dates of 2021-2023, but the body says from 2020 to present. Please clarify your request.

Regards,

Cynthia Wilson – Sheriff’s Technician
Alameda County Sheriff’s Office – Internal Affairs (Public Records Request)
3 Park Place, 3rd Floor|Dublin, CA 94568
office: 510.208.9805|fax: 510.208.9803|QIC:82000
cwilson@acgov.org|https://www.alamedacountysheriff.org/

Dear Bryan Tor,

Pursuant to California Government Code Section 7922.535, we write in response to the inquiry that you originally made to the Alameda County Social Services Agency on March 19, 2023, under the California Public Records Act, which the Alameda County Sheriff's Office received on, April 20, 2023. We note that the requests are limited only to records in our custody and control.
Regarding your request for any emails, text messages, reports. Memos, or any other written or digital communications sent or received by any employee of our agency with reference to the following phrases: "Proud Boy", "Proud Boys", "The Three Percenters", "Three Percenters", "Stop the Steal", "StopTheSteal.us", "QAnon", "boogaloo", "Thin blue Line", "Blue Lives Matter", and/or "car caravan", but we need clarification on the timeframe relating to the search. What timeframe are you seeking?

Regards,

Cynthia Wilson - Sheriff's Technician
Alameda County Sheriff's Office - Internal Affairs (Public Records Request)
3 Park Place, 3rd Floor|Dublin, CA 94568
office: 510.208.9805|fax: 510.208.9803|QIC:82000
cwilson@acgov.org|https://www.alamedacountysheriff.org/

Dear Bryan Tor,

Pursuant to California Government Code Section 7922.535, we write in response to the inquiry that you made to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office under the California Public Records Act, which we received on, April 20, 2023. We note that the requests are limited only to records in our custody and control.
While awaiting your response to my April 20, 2023, and May 1, 2023, emails asking for your date search confirmation,
A query through the entire Alameda County Sheriff's Office email system for the following phrases: "Proud Boy," "Proud Boys," "The Three Percenters,", "Three Percenters," "Stop the Steal," "StopTheSTEAL.us," "QAnon," "Boogaloo," "Thin Blue Line," "Blue Lives Matter," and/or "car caravan" netted 21,015 items. We are not able to review that volume of potentially responsive records in a reasonable amount of time for applicable exemptions and privileges, which were previously provided. Many are also likely to be false hits, given our software capabilities.

Burden is appropriately considered as justifying denial of PRA requests. (See Cal. Gov. Code § 6255; American Civil Liberties Union Foundation v. Deukmejian (1982) 32 Cal.3d 440, 452 ["Because the public has an interest in the cost and efficiency of government, a public agency's
expense and inconvenience associated with making a record available to the requestor must be factored into this balancing."].) "When weighing the benefits and costs of disclosure, any expense or inconvenience to the public agency may be properly considered." (Bertoli v. City of Sebastopol (2015) 233 Cal. App. 4th 353, 372, as modified (Jan. 30, 2015).) The California Supreme Court has explained that "[r]easonable efforts do not require that agencies undertake extraordinarily extensive or intrusive searches .... " (City of San Jose v. Superior Court (2017) 2 Cal. 5th 608, 627.) As such, "[a] clearly framed request which requires an agency to search an enormous volume of data for a 'needle in the haystack' or, conversely, a request which compels the production of a huge volume of material may be objectionable as unduly burdensome." (California First Amendment Coalition v. Superior Court (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 159, 166; see also Times Mirror Co. v. Superior Court (1991) 53 Cal. 3d 1325, 1345 [holding that "whatever merit disclosure might otherwise warrant in principle is simply crushed under the massive weight of the Times's request in this case .. . We are not persuaded that any identifiable public interest supports such a wholesale production of documents.").

We conducted a second query through the entire Alameda County Sheriff's Office email system for the following phrases: "Proud Boy," "Proud Boys," "The Three Percenters,", "Three Percenters," "Stop the Steal," "StopTheSTEAL.us," "QAnon," "Boogaloo," "Thin Blue Line," "Blue Lives Matter," and "car caravan" netted 4 items after deduplication. You will find the reviewed and redacted responsive emails attached. In compliance with the California Public Records Act, the emails have been redacted pursuant to Cal. Gov. Code 7923.600-7923.625 and 7922.540(a).

Best regards,

Cynthia Wilson - Sheriff's Technician
Alameda County Sheriff's Office - Internal Affairs (Public Records Request)
3 Park Place, 3rd Floor|Dublin, CA 94568
office: 510.208.9805|fax: 510.208.9803|QIC:82000
cwilson@acgov.org|https://www.alamedacountysheriff.org/