Salinas, CA PD Citizen Complaints

Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer filed this request with the Salinas Police Department of Salinas, CA.
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Completed

Communications

From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code §§ 6250), I hereby request the following records:

We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. This project requires us to request data from your department. If you have questions about this request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
3. What is the annual number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.
Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).
Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.
4. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.
Collecting this information is very important to our research, so we would like to emphasize, if you have questions about my request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.

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,

Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

From: Christopher Callihan

Mr. Csartwright and Ms. Alexander:

See the attached written in response to your August 18, 2017, request for public records.

Thank you.

Christopher A. Callihan, Esq.

City Attorney
City of Salinas
200 Lincoln Avenue
Salinas, CA 93901-2639

Telephone: (831) 758-7256 (main)

Telephone: (831) 758-7418 (direct)
Facsimile: (831) 758-7257
Email: chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us<mailto:chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us>

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PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL -- ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE -- ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT

The information contained in this electronic transmission is legally privileged and confidential, and it is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please take notice that any form of dissemination, distribution or photocopying of this electronic transmission is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately contact Christopher A. Callihan at (831) 758-7256 or chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us<mailto:chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us> and immediately delete the electronic transmission. Thank you.

From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

Hello,

Thank you for the update. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Respectfully,
Alex Cartwright

From: Christopher Callihan

Thank you for your patience on the City’s response. Attached is a pdf copy of our responsive letter. A hard copy will not follow in the regular mail.

Let us know is you have trouble opening or viewing the attachment.

Christopher A. Callihan, Esq.
City Attorney
City of Salinas
200 Lincoln Avenue
Salinas, CA 93901-2639
Telephone: (831) 758-7256 (main)
Telephone: (831) 758-7418 (direct)
Facsimile: (831) 758-7257
Email: chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us<mailto:chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us>

[http://cityweb/resources/SalinasLogo+Tagline.bmp]

PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL -- ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE -- ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
The information contained in this electronic transmission is legally privileged and confidential, and it is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please take notice that any form of dissemination, distribution or photocopying of this electronic transmission is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately contact Christopher A. Callihan at (831) 758-7256 or chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us<mailto:chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us> and immediately delete the electronic transmission. Thank you.

From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

Hi,

Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

I am writing to follow up on my original request made on 8/18/17.

Thank you very much for providing the information we requested. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings. We requested the total number of annual officer involved shootings each year for the past 10 years.

While you sent us data on officer complaints, the OIS data seems to have been overlooked. Could you please provide that data? If not, could you please clarify that your department does not collect OIS (officer involved shooting) data.

If you are able to provide the data, please define what constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department. For example, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.

Respectfully, -Alex Cartwright

From: Salinas Police Department

Mr. Cartwright:

The City requires additional time to identify and to produce non-exempt, responsive records. The City will have the identification and the production of such records completed by June 29, 2018.

In the meantime, if you have any questions let us know.

Thank you

Christopher A. Callihan, Esq.
City Attorney
City of Salinas
200 Lincoln Avenue
Salinas, CA 93901-2639
Telephone: (831) 758-7256 (main)
Telephone: (831) 758-7418 (direct)
Facsimile: (831) 758-7257
Email: chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us<mailto:chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us>

[http://cityweb/resources/SalinasLogo+Tagline.bmp]

PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL -- ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE -- ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
The information contained in this electronic transmission is legally privileged and confidential, and it is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please take notice that any form of dissemination, distribution or photocopying of this electronic transmission is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately contact Christopher A. Callihan at (831) 758-7256 or chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us<mailto:chrisc@ci.salinas.ca.us> and immediately delete the electronic transmission. Thank you.

From: Salinas Police Department

Mr. Cartwright,

Attached please find the city’s response to your request. Have a nice day and thank you.

From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

I am writing to follow up on my original request made on 8/8/17.

Thank you very much for providing the information we requested. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings you provided us with. What constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department? For example, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Some include all discharges and some exclude missed shots. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.

Very Respectfully, Alex Cartwright

From: Salinas Police Department

I have confirmed internally as per our policy below that an Officer Involved Shooting is defined as such. I hope this clears up any outstanding questions that you may have about this request. Thank you very much.

SALINAS POLICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL POLICY:

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From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

Hello,

I'm sorry but your response is not clear to me - "is defined as such" - what does this mean? Specifically, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Some include all discharges and some exclude missed shots. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.

From: Salinas Police Department

Perhaps the information that I attached wasn’t visible to you in my first email as an attachment. That can sometimes happen depending on your browser.

Here is our definition of an Officer Involved Shooting: an incident in which a person is injured or dies as the result of an officer shooting them or dies as a result of other actions of an officer.

In other words, an Officer Involved Shooting only includes shootings involving human beings where a human being is injured or dies as a result of being shot by an officer.

I hope this clears up any confusion. Thank you

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From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

Great. Thank you.

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