Marin PD RIPA requests (Fairfax Police Department)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) Any and all records reflecting data collected and recorded by the Police Department in accordance with the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) from January 1, 2022, through the present. Please provide the raw data in excel or csv format.

2) Any and all reports, records, and analyses created by, for, or at the direction of, the City/Town that pertain to any RIPA data that has been collected by the Police Department since January 1, 2022.

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,

Frank Shinneman

Dear Michele Gardner,

A response to this CPRA has not yet been received and is overdue. It is clear that Chief Tabaranza collects this data as required under the RIPA statute. The request is for the data spreadsheets in the format provided to the RIPA board, not the town dashboard. For clarity I have attached typical excel spreadsheet headings used by MCSO and many Marin Police Departments.

A response to this request would be appreciated at once.

Best Regards,

Frank Shinneman

To: Christina Hickey <Christina.Hickey@bbklaw.com>
Cc: Rico Tabaranza <rtabaranza@fairfaxpd.org>, habrams@townoffairfax.org, janet.coleson@pal.attorney
Bcc: tammy.j.edmonson@gmail.com

Dear Ms. Hickey,

I received your letter dated March 5, 2025, denying my Public Records Act request for data collected and recorded by the Fairfax Police Department in accordance with its obligations under the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA). I hope you will take this opportunity to reverse that decision which violates Fairfax’s duties under the Public Records Act and is at odds with the uniform cooperation I have received from other Marin County law enforcement agencies.

The following agencies have provided all of the requested RIPA data in a standard format in response to my recent Public Records Act requests: Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Belvedere Police Department, Central Marin Police Department, Mill Valley Police Department, Novato Police Department, San Rafael Police Department, Sausalito Police Department, and Tiburon Police Department.

The primary ground for denial asserted in your letter is that “the Town is not required to create a new record to respond to a public records act request.” To clarify, my request seeks an existing record that the Fairfax Police Department is required to create and maintain in accordance with RIPA. Gov. Code § 12525.5(b); see City of San Jose v. Superior Court (2017) 2 Cal.5th 651, 623 (CPRA disclosure requirements apply to documents “‘which the law requires the agency to prepare or which the agency has decided for its own reasons to create.’” quoting Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Administration (D.C. Cir. 1982) 678 F.2d 315, 321 [a FOIA case]).

You indicate that the Fairfax PD has enlisted a third party to store its data and deliver the requisite annual reports to the State RIPA Board. This does not relieve the Town of its disclosure obligations under the Public Records Act.

The [California Public Record Act’s] clear purpose is to prevent an agency from evading its disclosure duty by transferring custody of a record to a private holder and then arguing the record falls outside CPRA because it is no longer in the agency's possession…. [An agency may not] evade the CPRA by transferring public records to an intermediary not bound by the Act's disclosure requirements.

City of San Jose v. Superior Court, 2 Cal.5th at 624.

You mention that Fairfax, like most or all Marin law enforcement agencies, participates in the FBI’s National Incident Reporting System. I fail to see the relevance of this information. Your citation of Sander v. State Bar of California (2018)26 Cal.App.5th 651, is also inapposite. In that case, the information sought (extensive State Bar records pertaining to members) was not a legally mandated record; the information included great quantities of exempt private information; and compliance with the request would have required the agency to establish new data categories, recategorize existing data, calculate new numerical values and develop software to accomplish these ends.) Nor does the data I have requested include incident reports or investigative records which you note “are generally exempt from disclosure.”

I look forward to your prompt response through the original Muckrock.com channel remedying the erroneous denial of my Public Records Act Request. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Frank Shinneman

Dear Chief Tabaranza,

Since I have not had a response from you or your two counsels to my 3/13/25 email regarding the denial letter from BBK, I am again making a legal CPRA request for this data and I attach a copy of the email you received on 3/13/25.