Arkansas marijuana citation data 2011-2014

Evan Anderson filed this request with the Arkansas State Police of Arkansas.
Submitted March 28, 2015
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Evan Anderson

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), Ark. Code Ann. § § 25-19-101 to 25-19-109, I hereby request the following records:

A copy of all data related to citations for marijuana possession on the state and local levels. I am specifically seeking any statistics related to the total number of arrests and/or citations for offenses related to marijuana as well as the ethnicity, age, sex, and other demographic information of the persons arrested and/or cited, if available. The time frame for which I am seeking records is from January 2011 through December 2014.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, and is not being made 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 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Evan Anderson

From: MuckRock.com

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 28, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

From: Bill Sadler

Subject: None

Email

Your request for particular records identified in an email dated April 13, 2015 is declined.

Arkansas Code Annotated §25-19-105 (a)(1)(A) states, “Except as otherwise specifically provided by this section or by laws specifically enacted to provide otherwise, all public records shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizen of the State of Arkansas during the regular business hours of the custodian of the records.”

The U.S. Postal Service address you’ve provided for purposes of a response appears to be an out of state location and raises the question of Arkansas citizenship as applied under the aforementioned statute.

Furthermore, the Arkansas State Police does not possess a database by which an accounting of all marijuana possession charges may be examined under the terms of your request.

Bill Sadler
Arkansas State Police - Public Information Officer
One State Police Plaza Drive - Little Rock, Arkansas 72209
(501) 618-8230 - http://www.asp.state.ar.us/

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