Freedom of Information Request: Washington, D.C. PD Use of Force / Complaints Data

Dear Brandon Anderson,
This office is in receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Your FOIA Request Number is 2016-FOIA-05456. Your assigned FOIA Specialist is Robert Eckert. Pursuant to D.C. Official Code § 2-532, we have fifteen (15) business-days, subject to the possibility of a ten (10) business-day extension, to respond to the request as of the date of receipt.  More specifically, D.C. Official Code § 2-532(c) and (d) state:
(c) A public body, upon request reasonably describing any public record, shall within 15 days (except Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays) of the receipt of any such request either make the requested public record accessible or notify the person making such request of its determination not to make the requested public record or any part thereof accessible and the reasons therefor
(d) In unusual circumstances, the time limit prescribed in subsection (c) of this section may be extended by written notice to the person making such request setting forth the reasons for extension and expected date for determination. Such extension shall not exceed 10 days (except Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays). For purposes of this subsection, and only to the extent necessary for processing of the particular request, "unusual circumstances" are limited to: (1) The need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records which are demanded in a single request; or (2) The need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another public body having a substantial interest in the determination of the request or among 2 or more components of a public body having substantial subject-matter interest therein.
If you have any questions regarding your request, please contact the assigned FOIA Specialist at (202) 727-3721. For ease of reference, we ask that you have your FOIA Request Number available when you contact our office. Donald Kaufman MPD FOIA Officer

Mr. Brandon Anderson
MuckRock
Department MR 27850
411A Highland Avenue
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-2516
requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
FOIA Request No. 2016-FOIA-05456

Dear Mr. Anderson:

This concerns your September 9, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for:

1. Use of force reports made by Washington, DC, police officers since 2000; and,
2. Civilian complaints/commendations filed against Washington, DC police officers since 2000.

Records responsive to Item Number One (1) of your request will involve a very large volume of material that require an extended period of time to review, redact, and further coordinate any responsive records that may be located. Individual reports of this nature usually involve quite a number of pages, and such material would involve a significant amount of processing time, particularly for review/redaction, as they include personal privacy material, including personal identifers and other personal or other information that may lead to the identification of individuals, and other exempt material. It is the MPD's practice to protect the individuals' privacy wherever appropriate and the process of reviewing, redacting, and coordinating/consulting is time consuming. Accordingly, as presently constituted, your request will require a lengthy period to complete. Therefore, we request that you consider reducing the scope to a more manageable amount of records, such as for a small number of such reports over a period of one (1) year.

As relates to Item Number Two (2), although not intended as a denial of this portion of your request, the MPD does not customarily, as a practice, acknowledge or release specific complaints/commendations naming individual members/officers. We note that the District of Columbia Office of Police Complaints (OPC) also handles police complaints, but that MPD statistics concerning the subject matter of your request (both use of force and complaints) are available in MPD's Annual reports (http://mpdc.dc.gov/page/mpdc-annual-reports). For example, such statistics are located on page 38, and in Appendix E, of the MPD Annual Report: 2015. If you do continue to seek such information, please verify such to me at either Robert.eckert@dc.gov<mailto:Robert.eckert@dc.gov>; or to our mailing address at the following:

MPD FOIA Office, Room 4153
Attention: Robert Eckert
Metropolitan Police Department
300 Indiana Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001

Please respond to this message, as to our request to significantly reduce the scope of your request. If you no longer have a need for the requested records, no further response is needed from you, as after 15 calendar days we will interpret your nonresponse as indication that you no longer have a need for the records from the Metropolitan Police Department, and we will close our file on the request.

There are no charges for FOIA services, in this instance.

Bob Eckert
FOIA Specialist
MPD FOIA Office

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