Police data collection project (Baltimore County Police Department)

Dear Mr. Sinyangwe,

Your February 7, 2020 request to the Baltimore County Police Department ("BCOPD"), Legal Section was referred to the Baltimore County Office of Law for review and response pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act ("MPIA"), Md. Code Ann., Gen. Provis. § 4 - 101 et seq.

You are seeking various metrics regarding use of force as well as demographics for police involved shooting incidents.

The BCOPD has advised me that they are conducting the search for this information and will provide me with any fees, if any are associated with the processing of your request. Once I have additional information regarding the status of the MPIA request, I will update you.

You may already be aware of this, but here is limited information regarding use of force incidents on the Baltimore County website at: https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/police/complaints.html

Sincerely,

Vickie Wash

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Assistant County Attorney
Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204

Sir,

I have not received a response from the BCOPD to date. I will request a status update and advise you once I hear anything further.

Thanks, Vickie

The Department advised me of the following regarding the fee estimate. For the metrics regarding use of force broken down by years (2013 - 2019), it would require approximately 8 hours per each year at a rate of pay of $25.25. The fee estimate for these records is approximately $1,414.00.

The records related to demographics must be searched for manually, and therefore, it is unknown at this time what the fee estimate would be.

Should you wish to move forward with the records search for which there is an estimate, please let me know asap so that I can coordinate the effort.

Also, if you would like me to provide a fee estimate regarding the demographics, I would likely request a sample so that a fee estimate could be projected.

Thanks for your patience and I look forward to hearing from you.

Vickie

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Assistant County Attorney
Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204

I wanted to check in with you regarding this request. Can you please advise as to whether you wish to obtain the records you requested? If not, I will close out this transaction.

Thanks,
Vickie

Vickie L. Wash
Assistant County Attorney
Baltimore County Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue, 2nd Floor
Towson, Maryland 21204
(410) 887-4420

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Good Morning,

I am sorry for the delay in responding. Can you tell me what you mean when you say “use of force report”? If you are referencing the records contained in an Internal Affairs investigative file, that would almost certainly be denied in accordance with Maryland law which deems that record to be a personnel record.

Please advise so that I am able to properly frame up your inquiry when I contact BCOPD.

As to your second question, you are seeking a number only, namely a number quantifying the subset of the citizen complaints which have been sustained by Internal Affairs? Is that correct?
Best Regards,

Vickie

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Assistant County Attorney
Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204

We are still working on this on our end. I hope to have a response to you within the week.

Thanks for your patience.
Vickie

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Assistant County Attorney
Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204

Sam,

I have attached a responsive record which includes the following:

· The total number of “use of force” incidents by year for the years 2013 – 2019, which includes categories for the type of force used in each year.

· Separately, the same information is provided for the “use of force” category labeled firearms discharge, again by year.

· Finally, the total number of civilian complaints reported and sustained, as well as the number of “use of force” complaints reported and sustained, for the same timeframe, is also included.

BCOPD did not provide the amount of time that was required to prepare this record; consequently, there will be no fee assessed.

Please confirm receipt as I would like to close out this transaction.

Thank you again for your patience,

Vickie

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Assistant County Attorney
Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204

I am closing out the transaction. Again, thanks for your patience over the months that it took to provide the records.

Sincerely,

Vickie

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Assistant County Attorney
Office of Law
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204