Santa Maria, CA PD Citizen Complaints

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.
We have reviewed the Santa Maria annual reports but are unable to find the following info to we are requesting it:

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

Hello,

Thank you very much for the update. I look forward to your response.

Respectfully,
Alex Cartwright

Dear Mr. Cartwright and Ms. Dirmeyer:

The City of Santa Maria is in receipt of your public records request. The City is in need of some clarification to your request, and will also require an additional 14 calendar days to respond once clarification is received to search for, collect and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records demanded within your request, and to compile data not maintained in paper form. (Government Code § 6253(c)(1)-(4).)

Item No. 1: The City reports citizen complaints to the Department of Justice annually, but the reporting only includes criminal, non-criminal, misdemeanor, felony and if it was sustained, exonerated, not sustained, or unfounded. The City does not otherwise document in a disclosable record whether the matter resulted in discipline. That would only be maintained in a personnel file, which is not subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. Please advise if this DOJ report will meet your needs.

Item #2: The City has no responsive documents.

Item #3: The City does not maintain this information in any single document, and will need to search records by hand to determine this data.

Item #4: The City posts public interest statistics on the City’s website, at http://www.cityofsantamaria.org/city-government/departments/police-services/crime-statistics

We look forward to hearing from you with clarifications to your request.

Sincerely,
Kristine L. Mollenkopf
Assistant City Attorney

Hello,

I do not understand why my request was closed. I was never contacted regarding clarification. Can you please respond to this email specifying the clarification required?

Please let this email serve as my request to have this FOIA request re-opened.

Below is a copy of the request submitted on 8/18/17

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.
We have reviewed the Santa Maria annual reports but are unable to find the following info to we are requesting it:

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