Traffic Stop Records

Dear Tom Nash:
Thank you for your interest in FOIA records of the City of Virginia Beach. Your request has been submitted successfully and is being processed in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Your request is considered as received by this office on 4/30/2024 and given the reference number F016343-043024 for tracking purposes.
Records Requested: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

A tabular data file containing all information collected in accordance with Virginia § 15.2-1609.10, 15.2-1722.1, and 52-30.2-3 including but not limited to: date of stop, time of stop, race of driver, gender of driver, age of driver, if search occurred, if contraband was found, anonymized officer ID, and stop location for all years available.

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,

Tom Nash, a citizen of Virginia, in coordination with Emma Parry.

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Your request will be forwarded to the relevant department(s) to attempt to locate the records you seek.  The City may make reasonable charges, not to exceed our actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for requested records.  Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to request a cost estimate in advance of our supplying the records.  PLEASE NOTE: The Virginia Freedom of Information Act does not require a governmental body to create new documents, to do legal research, or to answer questions.
You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below, and you'll receive an email when your request has been completed. Again, thank you for using the Virginia Beach FOIA Request Center.
City of Virginia Beach

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RE: Freedom of Information Request, Reference # F016343-043024
Dear Tom Nash:
The City of Virginia Beach received a Freedom of Information Request from you on 4/30/2024, for the following: “Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

A tabular data file containing all information collected in accordance with Virginia § 15.2-1609.10, 15.2-1722.1, and 52-30.2-3 including but not limited to: date of stop, time of stop, race of driver, gender of driver, age of driver, if search occurred, if contraband was found, anonymized officer ID, and stop location for all years available.

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,

Tom Nash, a citizen of Virginia, in coordination with Emma Parry.” From to To
We require clarification of your FOIA request in order to proceed. Please provide a current legal mailing address pursuant to Virginia Code § 2.2-3704(A).
If you would like for the City of Virginia Beach to proceed with your FOIA information request, please provide clarifications as soon as possible.
You may provide a response to the City of Virginia Beach by any of the following methods:
1) by responding to this email
2) by regular mail to:
Freedom of Information Office Municipal Center, Building 1, Rm 260 2401 Courthouse Drive Virginia Beach, VA 23456-9004; or
3) in person at the address above upon receipt of your clarification, the City of Virginia Beach will further respond to your Freedom of Information Act Request as required by law.
If you have any questions concerning this response, please feel free to contact me at (757) 385-4052 or reply to this email.
Sincerely,
Melena Johnson
Freedom of Information Specialist

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RE: Freedom of Information Request, Reference # F016343-043024.
Dear Tom Nash:
I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information Request received on 4/30/2024, for the following: "Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

A tabular data file containing all information collected in accordance with Virginia § 15.2-1609.10, 15.2-1722.1, and 52-30.2-3 including but not limited to: date of stop, time of stop, race of driver, gender of driver, age of driver, if search occurred, if contraband was found, anonymized officer ID, and stop location for all years available.

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,

Tom Nash, a citizen of Virginia, in coordination with Emma Parry." From to To
I wrote back to you on April 30, 2024, and asked you to provide your legal address, but you have not done so. Virginia Code § 2.2-3704(A) limits the rights conferred by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia and representatives of certain media organizations. We are invoking an extension pursuant to Virginia Code § 2.2-3704(B)(4) to give you additional time to provide us with your legal address, and we will supplement this response within seven workdays.  Failure to provide your legal address will result in denial of your request.  Please also provide a date range for your request.
If you have any questions concerning this response, please feel free to contact my office via the new message link at Virginia Beach FOIA Request Center or (757) 385-4052.
Sincerely,
Melena Johnson
Freedom of Information Specialist

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Good morning, Mr. Nash.
Thank you for providing a VA mailing address. We also requested that you provide a date range for the requested records.  Please provide the date range as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Melena Johnson
To monitor the progress or update this request please log into the Virginia Beach FOIA Request Center (https://u8387778.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.VEsWrlMiJDg0mXafq1mEXeXyak9Zmf-2BWjmMlHtZmgJmjZo8aMCXkC-2Be-2FGSdTDFLv4aSIGQwZ-2FliXlX7q-2BnEqUdR1bA1jEWicqx5ZEiTp0Qh0WRRkAJ3kSD8MaszlpkbAhbRh_1uY3pX0XU1B7WewVChMEKelK03-2F4dgQ8tSWlfGpH-2F2EYxLabsX6PdmNYe-2Bdd0SAoAsC7BGtMjYQaqdLmY2spiqOOENn7HwI5z8dPswk-2FwI9-2BAyClhCixDDn-2FMEgCcpjt-2FUeT5ru1DAn4Sk2EJfyxC2TD-2Fw2MDiS3whASX5PwXWYdLA0bGfJEUQDXWg4b6EqL2KF-2BAbrpqAy9F8bsMqKARtbuy6tW9KbvjtVq3Wa7SMvS-2FMmu3QR9u-2BbwxpC61-2BCHEy9ruplY1JL92KevZJvghrmhfhy4mTchJJuqeIc-2FjQAhekNrGZf-2BP7fZPDAYXqV-2FSFpp4QOfGQpm4qcZwkho9nnobdnuGOSuBP4I7XxDp2i1SEEh-2Ficu2p4biI9xYoEAdp1XBKZLWIuoCHX56j97Xg-3D-3D)

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RE: Freedom of Information Request, Reference # F016343-043024.
Dear Tom Nash:
I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information Request received on 4/30/2024, for the following: "Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

A tabular data file containing all information collected in accordance with Virginia § 15.2-1609.10, 15.2-1722.1, and 52-30.2-3 including but not limited to: date of stop, time of stop, race of driver, gender of driver, age of driver, if search occurred, if contraband was found, anonymized officer ID, and stop location for all years available. . . .
CLARIFICATION: I am requesting copies of records from January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2024. If the full date range is not available, please provide the subset of records that are available within those dates." From to To
Your request was forwarded to the Police Department and the Sheriff's Office.
Shelby Santos with the Police Department provided an Excel spreadsheet and PDF record in response to your request, and advised as follows:
Please note the following items: Information regarding specific driver demographics and various fields pertaining to the stop began collection on July 1, 2020 due to the state mandates noted within the request itself. Attached you will also find the disclaimer we have provided that gives a full description as to what this will look like within the datasets. Traffic Stop data from Legacy CAD and Motorola PremierOne prior to July 1, 2020 has been included with stop information. It will be important to note that driver information is not available within those datasets. Community Policing data from December 2023 to February 2024 is pending final validation from VSP. We currently submit and verify all information on a monthly basis and VSP DART reviews prior to full state submission

Lt. Lisa Hicks with the Sheriff's Office provided two Excel spreadsheets in response to your request, and advised as follows:
We do not maintain a record of this specific information, we pull the reportable incident reports and use the information to enter each into a report for the Virginia State Police monthly.  It is public information available through their website at https://data.virginia.gov/dataset/community-policing-data.  I went to the website and was able to download an Excel spreadsheet with our data starting in September of 2020-September of 2023 (attached titled “VBSO 1”).  I am not sure why October 2023 to more present date is not on the website.  However, the Virginia State Police provided an Excel spreadsheet titled “VBSO 2.”  VSP is working through some technical issues causing the delay of monthly uploading, they are hoping to have that resolved by July. (https://u8387778.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.VEsWrlMiJDg0mXafq1mEXZ9qZZPjAXFPgGUMpWzxtDvIwskbh3wYQDJ5GX5WCT6nBHuVsS2ibZE2ZkmeX8zrVRDn-2BopR8OVkTpvESSNrmgs-3DXV2E_1uY3pX0XU1B7WewVChMEKelK03-2F4dgQ8tSWlfGpH-2F2EYxLabsX6PdmNYe-2Bdd0SAoAsC7BGtMjYQaqdLmY2spipJ5mMLsAUO3W0wNBp1isiSep-2B8WT4-2BvV9iiGcdKkCqYPC0VwVnXiuMneJ3iH8pRtm1fT3ILyKdxnfOJA1HJoGXeXQ75g53EK6OkpD3vmW98s-2FzdbATxgIq8XMjOpNs7wjfVKMS8lTCjzkIrefPzLBabK5LBGcntq9acmk7eId-2FgY0-2FMeZpQMPXfhyoQDG4NoAjcjxsP1UskMJks1p0MGu-2B7X1pUJ-2BSsQTYf87rKOHj3DmuuMg7daCH6fjIAUDdI4lN-2FL8eyr5fkgRHFIU9IBDfGUa3K4XXdyOTCAKG5-2FFncTWE3-2BN1DgHDJDZELym04Cg-3D-3D)

The records in response to your request are available for review/download by logging into the FOIA Request Center at the following link: FOIA Records Request - F016343-043024. (https://u8387778.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.VEsWrlMiJDg0mXafq1mEXeXyak9Zmf-2BWjmMlHtZmgJmjZo8aMCXkC-2Be-2FGSdTDFLv4aSIGQwZ-2FliXlX7q-2BnEqUdR1bA1jEWicqx5ZEiTp0Qh0WRRkAJ3kSD8MaszlpkbAFCJV_1uY3pX0XU1B7WewVChMEKelK03-2F4dgQ8tSWlfGpH-2F2EYxLabsX6PdmNYe-2Bdd0SAoAsC7BGtMjYQaqdLmY2spipJ5mMLsAUO3W0wNBp1isiSep-2B8WT4-2BvV9iiGcdKkCqYPC0VwVnXiuMneJ3iH8pRtm1fT3ILyKdxnfOJA1HJoGXeXQ75g53EK6OkpD3vmW98s-2FzdbATxgIq8XMjOpNs7wjfVKMS8lTCjzkIrefPzLBabK5LBGcntq9acmk7eId-2FgAgh2UFpXoM-2FqKIomJFshQE4rW-2B9a2Z3Gd16ies6-2FODb5ahAtgRzhZZa8uv4JzoHrSuqLQ5xXlLFQUmJ67tqKQvhh3r2hdNIxqU4KR8rqfOL8LHZ-2FBXXmza2M5Jau33KsnuWf5sM93COf7a3Xr05HSA-3D-3D)
If you have any questions concerning this response, please feel free to contact my office at (757) 385-4052.
Sincerely,
Melena Johnson
Freedom of Information Specialist
To monitor the progress or update this request please log into the Virginia Beach FOIA Request Center (https://u8387778.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.VEsWrlMiJDg0mXafq1mEXeXyak9Zmf-2BWjmMlHtZmgJmjZo8aMCXkC-2Be-2FGSdTDFLv4aSIGQwZ-2FliXlX7q-2BnEqUdR1bA1jEWicqx5ZEiTp0Qh0WRRkAJ3kSD8MaszlpkbAy3Ys_1uY3pX0XU1B7WewVChMEKelK03-2F4dgQ8tSWlfGpH-2F2EYxLabsX6PdmNYe-2Bdd0SAoAsC7BGtMjYQaqdLmY2spipJ5mMLsAUO3W0wNBp1isiSep-2B8WT4-2BvV9iiGcdKkCqYPC0VwVnXiuMneJ3iH8pRtm1fT3ILyKdxnfOJA1HJoGXeXQ75g53EK6OkpD3vmW98s-2FzdbATxgIq8XMjOpNs7wjfVKMS8lTCjzkIrefPzLBabK5LBGcntq9acmk7eId-2FgARHDgl0Sr3EtvRcVzsEaKlipEJYZszMsex5FRZ0XPFCC8YDvODxn8-2BN-2B4E4g3LxAHmOuog40j8AHxJ9FhIl5OhDfr-2BQSk0G3QYHTLaTBBtsQRBkUZ79Gf0EC6m07ywEDb02ls0OvSjuFUTGMigVrFg-3D-3D)