Office of Police Accountability Records
| Tracking # |
P061431-072620 |
| Submitted | July 26, 2020 |
| Est. Completion | Oct. 12, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Derek Held
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
A copy of all the anonymized underlying complaint data used by the Office of Police Accountability to publish datasets, generate statistical reports (such as the annual report or appeals report), track appeal status, or otherwise provide the searchable/browsable data published on the OPA's website. I ask for the data to be provided in as near native format as possible as I am not asking for a new public record to be created for the purpose of fulfilling this request, I am only requesting a copy of what the OPA already maintains in their database(s) or other structured format(s) of choice.
I have checked the Open Data Portal and there is only limited data available matching this request, particularly only cases closed in 2020 and active appeals.
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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Derek Held
From: Seattle Police Department
At this time, the Seattle Police Department’s Legal Unit is operating under an extreme backlog of requests, staffing shortages, the redeployment of supporting units to SPD’s frontline COVID-19 response, and, pursuant to CDC recommendations and City direction, reassignment to remote access. For these reasons, our ability to process new requests is substantially limited; we are currently estimating minimum response timelines, depending on the volume and complexity of requests, in excess of 6-12 months. Current requests should likewise anticipate that it will take additional time to process records and respond. We apologize for any inconvenience, and deeply appreciate your understanding as we all pull together, in the face of this unprecedented, pandemic public crisis, to manage as best we can our business operations.
Dear Derek Held:
Thank you for using the Seattle Police Public Records Request Center.
Your request was received on July 26, 2020and the reference number is P061431-072620.
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To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
A copy of all the anonymized underlying complaint data used by the Office of Police Accountability to publish datasets, generate statistical reports (such as the annual report or appeals report), track appeal status, or otherwise provide the searchable/browsable data published on the OPA's website. I ask for the data to be provided in as near native format as possible as I am not asking for a new public record to be created for the purpose of fulfilling this request, I am only requesting a copy of what the OPA already maintains in their database(s) or other structured format(s) of choice.
I have checked the Open Data Portal and there is only limited data available matching this request, particularly only cases closed in 2020 and active appeals.
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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Derek Held
Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://www.muckrock.com/
From: Seattle Police Department
07/27/2020
Derek Held
requests@muckrock.com
RE: Public Disclosure Request #: P061431-072620
Dear Derek Held,
This communication is in response to your public disclosure request.
The purpose of this correspondence is to provide you a status update. Your request status is: Assigned.
If you have any questions, you may send messages using the Police Records Request Center or call the Public Disclosure Desk at 206-684-5481.
Please add seattle@mycusthelp.net to your E-mail contacts/address book to ensure delivery of the record center E-mails to your Inbox. (mailto:seattle@mycusthelp.net)
This is an auto-generated email and has originated from an unmonitored email account. Please DO NOT REPLY.
SPD receives between 7000 and 8000 public records requests annually and is processing between 1400 to 1500 open requests at a time. This may result in a slower than anticipated response to your request. Thank you for your patience.
From: Seattle Police Department
08/03/2020
Derek Held
requests@muckrock.com
RE: Public Disclosure Request#: P061431-072620
Dear Derek Held,
This communication is in response to your public disclosure request.
The purpose of this correspondence is to provide you a status update. Your request status is: Being Researched/Reviewed.
If you have any questions, you may send messages using the Police Records Request Center or call the Public Disclosure Desk at 206-684-5481.
Please add seattle@mycusthelp.net to your E-mail contacts/address book to ensure delivery of the record center E-mails to your Inbox.
This is an auto-generated email and has originated from an unmonitored email account. Please DO NOT REPLY.
SPD receives between 7000 and 8000 public records requests annually and is processing between 1400 to 1500 open requests at a time. This may result in a slower than anticipated response to your request. Thank you for your patience.
From: Seattle Police Department
--- Please respond above this line ---
08/03/2020
Derek Held
requests@muckrock.com
RE: Public Disclosure Request#: P061431-072620
Dear Derek Held,
This communication is in response to your public disclosure request received on July 26, 2020. At this time, the Seattle Police Department’s Legal Unit is operating under an extreme backlog of requests, staffing shortages, the redeployment of supporting units to SPD’s frontline COVID-19 response, and, pursuant to CDC recommendations and City direction, reassignment to remote access. For these reasons, our ability to process new requests is substantially limited; we are currently estimating minimum response timelines, depending on the volume and complexity of requests, in excess of 6-12 months. Current requests should likewise anticipate that it will take additional time to process records and respond. We apologize for any inconvenience, and deeply appreciate your understanding as we all pull together, in the face of this unprecedented, pandemic public crisis, to manage as best we can our business operations.
Pursuant to RCW 42.56.520, this is notification that the Seattle Police Department has received your public disclosure records request and needs additional time to respond.
At this time, we anticipate having a response or a status update to you on or about 10/12/2020.
We are initiating the process of researching your request, collecting responsive records, and/or preparing records for dissemination.
If you have any questions, you may send a message using the Police Records Request Center or call the Public Disclosure Desk at 206-684-5481.
Sincerely,
Dianalynn Oreiro
Seattle Police Department
Legal Unit
SPD receives between 7000 and 8000 public records requests annually and is processing between 1400 to 1500 open requests at a time. This may result in a slower than anticipated response to your request. Thank you for your patience.
As a reminder you can login at the Police Records Request Center where you can access Police online information, manage your profile, submit record requests, track your request status, receive and send messages, make payments, view frequently asked questions, and download your records.
Please add seattle@mycusthelp.net to your E-mail contacts/address book to ensure delivery of the record center E-mails to your Inbox. (mailto:seattle@mycusthelp.net)
From: Seattle Police Department
--- Please respond above this line ---
10/16/2020
Derek Held
requests@muckrock.com
RE: Public Disclosure Request#: P061431-072620
Dear Derek Held,
The purpose of this communication is to provide a status update regarding your request.
The Seattle Police Department needs additional time to respond to your request. Due to our current workload and backlog, we are still processing your request.
We have contacted the Office of Professional Accountability. We have been informed that they can provide an Excel files containing the data that was used to make their last several reports.
In addition, PDFs of all closed cases summaries since 2015 are published online and can be found at https://www.seattle.gov/opa/news-and-reports/closed-case-summaries, not just 2020 cases as you had stated in your request. 2020 is the only year that there is a table for closed case summaries, and the table is public on data.seattle.gov.
2018-2020 Management Action Recommendations are online and can be found at https://www.seattle.gov/opa/policy/policy-recommendations. OPA has a table which we can provide which is very similar to what is online.
As you are aware, a data set showing all open appeals is published to the City Open Data Portal and free for download. It is the same data as the "native" data tracking sheet OPA uses internally, just with the employee names redacted. We could provide some data. However, the City Attorney's Office would have much more detailed records. Please advise on how you would like us to proceed. We will leave your request open for 30 days, if no response is received within that time, we will consider your request abandoned and will close your request.
If you have any questions, you may send a message using the Police Records Request Center or call the Public Disclosure Desk at 206-684-5481.
Sincerely,
Dianalynn Oreiro
Seattle Police Department
Legal Unit
SPD receives between 7000 and 8000 public records requests annually and is processing more than 2000 open requests at a time. This may result in a slower than anticipated response to your request. Thank you for your patience.
As a reminder you can login at the Police Records Request Center where you can access Police online information, manage your profile, submit record requests, track your request status, receive and send messages, make payments, view frequently asked questions, and download your records.
Please add seattle@mycusthelp.net to your E-mail contacts/address book to ensure delivery of the record center E-mails to your Inbox. (mailto:seattle@mycusthelp.net)
From: Derek Held
The Excel files sound like what I am looking for. Do they also contain data for all appeals? Or is that something maintained by the City Attorney's Office?
Regards,
Derek
Files
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