Search Warrant Data

LPL filed this request with the Maine Administrative Office Of The Courts of Maine.
Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

From: LPL


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

For all search warrants, applications for search warrants, cancellations, and authorization for search warrants between 2012 to the date of processing this request, please provide the following points of record for each:

Full Name of requester
If arrest, arrest ID (eg some cities/states use, "Incident Report")
Reason(s) for search warrant (typically either hand-written, or checkboxes)
Badge ID (or similar) of requester
District/Unit
Name of Judge
Name of approving officer
Whether an Arrest happened
Requested location of search warrant
Location of search warrant execution
Type of search warrant
Statements used to justify search warrant
Time and date when search warrant was submitted for approval
Time and date when search warrant was executed
Whether anything was seized
Whether anything was found
License plate of vehicle (if relevant)
Race of person for search warrant
Age of person for search warrant
State of person for search warrant
Whether an informant was involved
Method of contact with informant leading to search warrant (eg, phone call, mail, fax, email, etc)
Description of person search warrant executed on
Legal code of violation
Description of violation
Date of violation
If search warrant related to debt: name of company debt is owed to, amount owed
Whether FBI involved
ID associated with FBI document (eg, IR #)
Whether search warrant was cancelled
Whether contraband found
Whether narcotics found

The records responsive to this request are likely available in a database, or in some query-able format. If your department or agency does not have direct access to the records, please raise to the respective department that can run queries directly (eg, through SQL).

Should your agency not have all of the requested records within a single record or document, please provide me the relevant documents that do, even if that requires more than one class of document. Should some of the records be unavailable, please let me know ahead of time so that we can narrow the request accordingly.

As the records responsive to this request are imperative for understanding how search warrants are executed, I ask that the public interest of these records be evaluated to the extent that the public's interest outweighs this request's burden. To add, this request is being sent to the largest city of every state and will be collated together to create a comprehensive map of search warrants throughout the US. As such, the records are not only important for understanding search warrants at a local level, but also at a national and state-wide level.

Please ensure that provided documents comply with Section 508, as these records will be shared with members of the public who are covered under the ADA. This guide should be helpful: https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/making-files-accessible/checklist/pdf/index.html

If this request was sent to the wrong department or agency, please let me know so that I can send to the correct place.

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 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Lucy Parsons Labs

From: Maine Administrative Office Of The Courts

Good morning

I have forwarded this request to the Administrative Office of the Courts
at 1 Court St Augusta, ME 04333. They can be reached at 207-213-2850. Our
Administrative Office of the Courts provide the information that you are
requesting.

Thank you

--
*Marie Nault*

*Judicial Branch Service Center**Service Center Associate Clerk*
*P.O. Box 266*

*Lewiston, ME 04243**207-753-2901*

--
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for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential
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From: Maine Administrative Office Of The Courts

Lucy Parsons Labs,

Thank you for contacting the Maine Judicial Branch regarding obtaining
search warrant data from 2012 to the present.

Unfortunately, the type of data you are requesting is not tracked or
maintained in one central location by the Judicial Branch. Compiling such
data, if available, would require significant time and staff resources.
Thus, your request is denied per our Administrative Order JB 05-20
(A.5-19), which states *"r**equests for information that would require
clerk’s office staff to perform research or provide aggregate
information or respond to standing requests must be declined, unless the
Chief Judge or Justice has preauthorized a response..." In
addition, requests for data or information that would require
administrative or technical staff to perform substantial new research,
program new reports, evaluate data, or respond to standing requests must be
declined, unless the Chief Judge or Justice has preauthorized a
response. Requests to provide "data dumps," "bulk data," or large
quantities of case details will be denied."*

The Maine Judicial Branch has begun the process of completely overhauling
our case management system. It is our hope that, at some point in the
future, we may be better able to consider requests such as yours.
However, given
the amount of resources it would take to fulfill this request is beyond our
current capability.

More information about this Administrative Order can be found here:
https://www.courts.maine.gov/rules_adminorders/adminorders/JB-05-20.html

Regards,
Claire Bell

--
_Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is
for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential
and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or
distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please
contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy/delete all copies of the
original message._