Police Liability payout record request from Sun Sentinel (Miami Police Department)

Your request will be forwarded to the Public Information Office which handles records request,

Morning Mario.

I received your public records request this morning. Please be advised that the SMU (social media unit) email is the not the best one for submitting public records request.
In the future, feel free to email me directly or you can upload it directly to our dept website's (https://www.miami-police.org/) thru the Public Records Requests tab.

That being said, I reviewed your request and must advise you that any records pertaining to lawsuit payouts are handled by our city attorney's office.
If you're still working this story, you can send this request to PublicRecords <PublicRecords@miamigov.com<mailto:PublicRecords@miamigov.com>>

Hope this helps. Cheers

Orlando Rodriguez
Public Relations Agent
Miami Police Dept.
Public Information Office
Phone: 305-603-6420

Miami Police Department
SL Office
400 Northwest 2nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33128

March 3, 2021

This is a follow up to a previous request:

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Florida Sunshine Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 29, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 107580
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

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On Jan. 29, 2021:
Subject: Florida Sunshine Law Request: Police Liability payout record request from Sun Sentinel (Miami Police Department)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Florida Sunshine Law, I hereby request the following records:

I hope this message finds you well. This is a public records request from a member of a media organization, pursuant to Florida Statute 119. In furtherance of an article investigating police misconduct payouts across the county over the past decades, we are seeking documents that show how much your municipal corporation, its legal representatives, or its liability insurance carriers have paid out in civil court since 01/01/2010 because of the actions of its police professionals.

To that end, we kindly request the electronic delivery of an excel spreadsheet with the following information:
- An identifying number for the claim
- The loss date
- An incident indicator description (such as "excessive force, k-9 bite, false arrest/imprisonment, etc.)
- Incurred expenses
- Incurred liability
- Incurred legal expenses
- Paid legal expenses
- Paid total
- Incurred total

This records pull should be interpreted to cover both federal and state court claims. If some of the above figures are not available because of your accounting practices, please endeavor to provide us with as full a picture as possible of the $$$ paid out by your municipality due to lawsuits against its police officers over the past ten years.

Upon request, we can provide a spreadsheet obtained from the BSO that can serve as an example and guide for what we are looking for. Please do feel free to reach out via email or phone should you have any questions.

Very Best
Mario Alejandro Ariza
Federal Courts Reporter
South Florida Sun Sentinel
786.210.6548

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 business days.

Sincerely,

Mario Ariza

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 107580
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.