Deleted and drafted tweets on @NOPDNews

To New Orleans Police Department:

This is a request under the Louisiana Public Records Law. My name is Sarah Jones, and I am a resident of Louisiana.

Requested Records

I request all agency records from September 2014 to the present concerning Tweets deleted or drafted and not sent from the @NOPDNews account associated with the New Orleans Police Department.

I believe the records that I are located, inter alia, within agency headquarters, in email records, and in third-party platforms used to manage the Agency’s social media accounts.

The records I request include, but are not limited to:
1. Records of all tweets deleted by the Twitter handle associated with the New Orleans Police Department (@NOPDNews), including:

a. Any tweets that were published on Twitter and subsequently deleted for any reason; and

b. Any tweets published by other accounts that were retweeted by @NOPDNews and subsequently deleted for any reason.

2. Records of all tweets that have been kept in draft form beyond their expected date and time of publication, on Twitter or in a third-party social media management platform, for any reason.

3. Records related to the drafting or deletion of tweets, including:

a. Any correspondence or record of correspondence regarding the drafting or deletion of specific tweets

i. including correspondence sent through official government email addresses or messaging services; and

ii. including correspondence sent through private third-party services such as Gmail or Slack; and

iii. Including any messages, notes, or annotations created on a third-party social media management platform.

b. Documentation of the agency’s existing policy regarding the preservation and maintenance of tweets as per the Federal Records Act, and Federal Records Management Bulletin 2014-02 (available at https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2014/2014-02.htm), which stated that “social media content may be a Federal record when the use of social media provides added functionality, such as enhanced searchability, opportunities for public comment, or other collaboration… A complete Federal record must have content, context, and structure along with associated metadata (e.g., author, date of creation). The complete record must be maintained to ensure reliability and authenticity.”

c. Any briefings, reports, memoranda, legal opinions, policy statements, or talking points used or disseminated within the Agency regarding the drafting or deletion of tweets.
I urge the NOPD to process this request consistent with “a general philosophy of full agency disclosure [under FOIA] unless information is exempted under clearly delineated statutory language,” United States Dep't of Def. v. Fed. Labor Relations Auth., 510 U.S. 487, 494 (1994), and the Justice Department’s policy directing a presumption of disclosure. See Dep’t of Justice Office of Information Policy, President Obama’s FOIA Memorandum and Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines: Creating a “New Era of Open Government” (2009), available at https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-post-2009-creating-new-era-open-government).

Request for Public Interest Fee Waiver

I request a waiver of fees because disclosure of the requested records is in the public interest. It “is likely to contribute significantly to the public understanding of the activities or operations of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii).

First, the records concern the operations or activities of the government. Government social media accounts are used to disseminated information to the public, make official pronouncements, and generally serve as an important touch point for governments to receive public input. See Social Media Use by Governments: A Policy Primer to Discuss Trends, Identify Policy Opportunities and Guide Decision Makers, OECD Working Papers on Public Governance, available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jxrcmghmk0s-en. Social media use, including tweets posted by @SocialSecurity and then deleted, or never posted, is an important part of this activity.

Disclosure of the requested information is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government. Specifically, the requested records will reveal substantial new information about how the New Orleans Police Department defines and manages tweets. They will allow the public to see what published messages have been rescinded and the process by which these public statements were retracted as compared to the processes employed by other agencies.

For the reasons above, I respectfully request that the New Orleans Police Department grant a public interest fee waiver for this request, and that all fees related to the search, review, and duplication of the requested records be waived. If the fees will not be waived, I agree to pay up to $2 for the processing of this request. If the estimated fees will exceed this limit, please inform me before you begin processing.

I request that responsive electronic records be provided electronically in their native file format, if possible. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sarah Jones