Traffic Stop Records (Tallahassee Police Department)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Florida Sunshine Law, I hereby request the following records:

Dear Public Records Officer:

We request raw data – in a machine-readable database or spreadsheet format such as SQL, CSV, XML, JSON, Excel, or Access files — on Traffic Stops. The time period of the data should cover the earliest date available in the Police Department or City databases through the date on which this request is fulfilled.

The data should include all disclosable fields, including but not limited to fields containing the following types of information:

• Officer First, Middle and Last Name
• Officer Shield Number / Employee ID / Unique System ID
• Officer Rank
• Officer Start Date/ Appointment Date
• Rank/ Squad Assignment Date (See Note)
• Status (i.e. Active, Retired, etc.)
• Officer Gender
• Officer Race/ Ethnicity
• Incident Location
• Incident Offense
• NIBRS Code
• Incident Date
• Incident Time
• Charge
• Charge Description
• Person ID (Subject ID)
• Subject First Name
• Subject Middle Name
• Subject Last Name
• Subject Date of Birth
• Subject Drivers License
• Subject Sex
• Subject Race
• Subject Age
• Incident ID
• Search Conducted
• Contraband Found / Search Result
• Disposition
• Vehicle Make
• Vehicle Model

In addition, we are also requesting all identifiers, primary keys, and/or metadata that distinguish between unique records and individuals, and that link the database tables together, including but not limited to Incident IDs, Person IDs, and [any other relevant fields you’re aware of].

We are also requesting any data dictionaries, code tables, or other types of manuals that define, in plain English, the meaning of the column headers in the data, and any codes, acronyms, abbreviations or other shorthand terms used for entries in the data.

We are asking for an export of raw data, to the extent maintained in the City’s or PD’s databases. We do not expect the City or PD to manually input or alter any information into the data for the purposes of fulfilling this request.

Redactions:

If a record contains both exempt and non-exempt information, the non-exempt information should still be provided: Because we are requesting data, each distinct type of information is separated into its own field (i.e. column), making it easy to redact exempt information en masse.

Location of the Data

We are not familiar with the City’s or PD’s databases which contain traffic records. However, pursuant to Flordia Law 119.01, which requires agencies to design record keeping systems “capable of providing data in some common format such as, but not limited to, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange,” so we are confident that these records exist.

Entitlement to Records as Data: We request these records in a machine-readable database or spreadsheet format — such as SQL, CSV, XML, JSON, Excel, or Access files — and not printed out, or converted to PDF files, or otherwise processed in a manner that would decrease the quality, quantity, or accessibility of the original information the records represent. We realize the information may be contained in multiple tables. We are not asking The City/ to join tables together for us, or to conduct any type of analysis on the data. We are merely asking for the department to export the raw data, as it exists in the department's database, which should minimize the amount of programming necessary to fulfill our request.

We can do the joining on our own, so long as each table contains the unique identifiers and primary keys necessary to join the tables together, and so long as we are provided the necessary documentation to ensure that we are accurately joining and analyzing the data.

We are comfortable working with very large databases in many standard data formats. Upon request, we would be happy to provide a USB thumb drive or external hard drive to facilitate the release of these records.

Other Provisions:

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 business days.

Sincerely,

Brooks

Dear Public Records Officer,

I am following up with the public records request made on August 13th.

Brooks

Dear Public Records Officer,

I am following up with the public records request made on August 13th.

Brooks

Dear Public Records Officer,

I am following up with the public records request made on August 13th.

Brooks

Dear Public Records Officer,

I am following up with the public records request made on August 13th.

Brooks

Dear Public Records Officer,

I am following up with the public records request made on August 13th.

Brooks

If I do not receive an acknowledgement of receipt I will be following up with the Florida Attorney General Mediator, provided to the public to address public records requests.

I appreciate your anticipated co-operation

Brooks

No response or acknowledgement of a public records request. This is a violation of florida sunshine law.