Alameda County, CA Sheriff Department Drone Documents
| Submitted | July 26, 2012 |
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Communications
From: Drone Watch
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California's Sunshine Amendment (Cal. Const. Art. I, § 3(b)), I hereby request the following records:
1. any requests for proposals, proposals submitted by vendors, contracts, budgets or cost allocations for the purchase and/or use of aerial drones, UAs, UAVs, and UASs (hereinafter “drones”);
2. any policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on department use of drones, including on the legal process required (such as a warrant or court order), if any, before operating a drone;
3. any departmental records concerning this department’s use of drones now or plans to use drones in the future including:
a. the types of investigations or instances in which this department is using or plans to use drones, or how it plans to support, manage or oversee the usage of drones by another department or office;
b. policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on storage requirements or procedures for video or static images obtained through use of drones, including retention times;
c. the altitude at which drones can or do fly;
d. drones’ ability to carry weapons.
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Drone Watch
From: Raymond, Gabriella P., County Counsel
Drone Watch c/o MuckRock.com
Dear Sir/Madam,
Pursuant to California Government Code section 6253(c), I write in response to the public records requests that you made to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office ("ACSO") regarding aerial drones. Your requests were received on July 26, 2012.
ACSO does have public records responsive to your request. ACSO will determine the costs for the production of the documents. Upon receipt of payment from you, ACSO will produce those documents. ACSO will have the cost estimate to you by August 17, 2012.
The Sheriff's Office will not produce documents that are privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure. The Sheriff's Office will also not produce documents that are privileged pursuant to California Government Code section 6254 (k). This includes documents protected by the attorney client privilege and the official information privilege of California Evidence Code section 1040(b)(2).
No preliminary drafts or memorandum not normally kept in the ordinary course of business will be produced pursuant to California Government Code section 6254(a).
The Sheriff's Office will not produce documents that compromise law enforcement methods and endanger the success of an ongoing investigation or prosecution pursuant to California Government Code section 6254(f).
The Sheriff's Office will not produce documents exempt from disclosure under the deliberative process privilege. (See Times Mirror Co. v. Superior Court (1991) 53 Cal.3d 1325.)
CONCLUSION
Before producing any documents, the Sheriff's Office will provide you with a cost estimate. Once it receives your payment, it will send you the documents. If there are many documents, the production may be on a rolling basis.
Sincerely,
Gabriella Raymond
[cid:image001.jpg@01CD7196.6D1A5DD0]
Gabriella Raymond | Deputy County Counsel
Office of the County Counsel
1221 Oak Street, Suite 450 | Oakland, California 94612
510-272-6701 | Facsimile No. 510-272-5020 | QIC 20104
gabriella.raymond@acgov.org<http://@acgov.org@@ | www.acgov.org@@http://www.acgov.org/>
From: Mulder, Judea R., Sheriff
Pursuant to California Government Code Section 6253(c), I write in response to your public records requests that our Agency received on July 26, 2012.
Below is a summary of your requests:
Use of aerial drones:
1. proposals from vendors, contracts, budgets, cost allocations
2. policies on use including legal process requirement
3. record re: present use / future plans to use
a) investigations in which department is using drones and future management of usage
b) policies on storage or procedures for video or static images obtained
c) altitude at which drones can fly
d) drones' ability to carry weapons
Attached is a correspondence generated by our Agency, and it responsive to Items #1 and 3. We do not have documents responsive to Item #2.
Please call if you have questions.
Judea Mulder
From: Drone Watch
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California's Sunshine Amendment (Cal. Const. Art. I, § 3(b)), I hereby request the following records:
1. any requests for proposals, proposals submitted by vendors, contracts, budgets or cost allocations for the purchase and/or use of aerial drones, UAs, UAVs, and UASs (hereinafter “drones”);
2. any policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on department use of drones, including on the legal process required (such as a warrant or court order), if any, before operating a drone;
3. any departmental records concerning this department’s use of drones now or plans to use drones in the future including:
a. the types of investigations or instances in which this department is using or plans to use drones, or how it plans to support, manage or oversee the usage of drones by another department or office;
b. policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on storage requirements or procedures for video or static images obtained through use of drones, including retention times;
c. the altitude at which drones can or do fly;
d. drones’ ability to carry weapons.
4. Documents related to preliminary testing of drones the department is considering purchasing, as reported in local media: http://castrovalley.patch.com/articles/sheriff-wants-aerial-surveillance-drones-to-patrol-alameda-county#photo-11653359
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Shawn Musgrave
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 26, 2012. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Mulder, Judea R., Sheriff
Our office is reviewing and compiling the responsive documents to the amended request you placed on October 25, 2012.
The original request, dated July 26, 2012, was already responded to on August 14 (as you can check on the chain below). Both requests are quite similar except for Item #4, the amendment. As such, we have up-to-date documents responsive to those now, the page count of which will be provided to you soon.
Thank you for your patience.
From: Mulder, Judea R., Sheriff
Mr. Shawn Musgrave,
Due to the quantity of the documents we are going to provide you as response to your request placed on October 25, 2012, and the amount of time we have spent pulling resources to acquire these documents, we regret to inform you that the production fee will not be waived.
The total page count of the responsive documents is 314. Per County policy, copying fee is $.10 per page if the documents are more than 10 pages. Therefore, the total fee you have to remit to our Agency is $31.40.
Please mail a check payable and addressed to:
Alameda County Sheriff's Office
Internal Affairs Unit
ATTN: Judea Mulder
1401 Lakeside Drive, 7th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Your requested documents will be mailed promptly upon receipt of your check.
Yours truly,
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