Georgia Police Reciprocal Certifications 2023-5-9 • MuckRock

5 Communications
0 Files

Communications

From: Sam Stecklow

05/09/2023

Subject: Georgia Open Records Act Request: Georgia Police Reciprocal Certifications 2023-5-9

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a public records request made via MuckRock under the Georgia Open Records Act, seeking records related to law enforcement officer certification in this state.

This request is brought by Big Local News along with a collaboration of news organizations, including ABC News, KQED, MuckRock, the Invisible Institute and other news organizations. Big Local News is a program of Stanford University’s Journalism and Democracy Initiative and helps journalists collect, process and analyze public data.

We request any spreadsheets, logs, data, or other similar documents maintained by GA POST sufficient to show the following information regarding law enforcement officers who receive reciprocal certifications in Georgia due to their previous certification in other states or as military police officers. Specifically, please provide as many of the following data points as are maintained:

- Unique ID
- Name
- Previous state or military that the officer was previously certified by
- Date of Georgia certification

If your certification system contains data elements not listed above, please include them in the response, provided they are releasable under the law. On the other hand, we recognize some of the information we are asking for may not be tracked by your system. If that is the case, we are willing to accept as many of the data elements as your agency maintains. If some records are more readily available, we are happy to receive partial information as soon as possible while the remaining request is processed.

In addition to the data elements listed, we request documentation necessary to understand and interpret the data, including but not limited to record layouts, data dictionaries, code sheets, lookup tables, etc.

Our preference is to receive structured data provided in a machine-readable text file, such as delimited or fixed-width formats. We can also handle a variety of other data formats including SQL databases, Excel workbooks and MS Access. If there are additional formats your agency would prefer to provide, please let us know.

We are seeking this information as a news media organization on a matter of public interest concerning the conduct of government. As such, we ask for a waiver of all fees, if allowed under state law. If fees are necessary to reimburse the agency for actual costs, we agree to pay up to $100. If costs exceed that amount, please let us know before fulfilling the request.

Please send clarifications and questions via electronic communication at any time. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request.

Sam Stecklow
Invisible Institute

From: Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council

05/11/2023

Subject: Fwd: Georgia Open Records Act Request: Georgia Police Reciprocal Certifications 2023-5-9

I am checking into this but I am not sure if we have a way to dictate who
came from another state and took the EOT. I have sent your request to my
Director so as soon as I hear back from her I will let you know.

Thanks
Jill Dalon

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Helpdesk User <helpdesk@gapost.org>
Date: Tue, May 9, 2023 at 1:59 PM
Subject: Fwd: Georgia Open Records Act Request: Georgia Police Reciprocal
Certifications 2023-5-9
To: Jill Dalon <jdalon@gapost.org>

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <requests@muckrock.com>
Date: Tue, May 9, 2023 at 1:48 PM
Subject: Georgia Open Records Act Request: Georgia Police Reciprocal
Certifications 2023-5-9
To: <helpdesk@gapost.org>

Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council
ORA Office
P.O. Box 349
Clarkdale, GA 30111

May 9, 2023

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a public records request made via MuckRock under the Georgia Open
Records Act, seeking records related to law enforcement officer
certification in this state.

This request is brought by Big Local News along with a collaboration of
news organizations, including ABC News, KQED, MuckRock, the Invisible
Institute and other news organizations. Big Local News is a program of
Stanford University’s Journalism and Democracy Initiative and helps
journalists collect, process and analyze public data.

We request any spreadsheets, logs, data, or other similar documents
maintained by GA POST sufficient to show the following information
regarding law enforcement officers who receive reciprocal certifications in
Georgia due to their previous certification in other states or as military
police officers. Specifically, please provide as many of the following data
points as are maintained:

- Unique ID
- Name
- Previous state or military that the officer was previously certified by
- Date of Georgia certification

If your certification system contains data elements not listed above,
please include them in the response, provided they are releasable under the
law. On the other hand, we recognize some of the information we are asking
for may not be tracked by your system. If that is the case, we are willing
to accept as many of the data elements as your agency maintains. If some
records are more readily available, we are happy to receive partial
information as soon as possible while the remaining request is processed.

In addition to the data elements listed, we request documentation necessary
to understand and interpret the data, including but not limited to record
layouts, data dictionaries, code sheets, lookup tables, etc.

Our preference is to receive structured data provided in a machine-readable
text file, such as delimited or fixed-width formats. We can also handle a
variety of other data formats including SQL databases, Excel workbooks and
MS Access. If there are additional formats your agency would prefer to
provide, please let us know.

We are seeking this information as a news media organization on a matter of
public interest concerning the conduct of government. As such, we ask for a
waiver of all fees, if allowed under state law. If fees are necessary to
reimburse the agency for actual costs, we agree to pay up to $100. If costs
exceed that amount, please let us know before fulfilling the request.

Please send clarifications and questions via electronic communication at
any time. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request.

Sam Stecklow
Invisible Institute

View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/

If prompted for a passcode, please enter:
••••••••

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 145532
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

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.
--
Help Desk Team
Office is closed daily for lunch 12-1.

From: Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council

05/17/2023

Subject: Fwd: Georgia Open Records Act Request: Georgia Police Reciprocal Certifications 2023-5-9

Hello, we do not have a report like you are requesting. This information
would be on the POST application but we can not go through every
application and POST applications are not subject to open records. Sorry.

Thanks,
Jill Dalon

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Helpdesk User* <helpdesk@gapost.org>
Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Subject: Fwd: Georgia Open Records Act Request: Georgia Police Reciprocal
Certifications 2023-5-9
To: Jill Dalon <jdalon@gapost.org>