Boston, MA PD Citizen Complaints

Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer filed this request with the Boston Police Department of Boston, MA.
Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

Communications

From: Alexander Cartwright

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

1. What is the total number of citizen complaints made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years?

Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).

2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years?

Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).

3. What is the total number of calls for service your department received annually for the past 10 years?

4. What is the number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years?

Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.

5. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. 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.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

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 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Alexander Cartwright

From: Media Relations

Pursuant to G. L. c. 66, § 10 (b), this correspondence is to confirm receipt
of your request for documents that are potentially in the possession,
custody or control of the Boston Police Department.

Specifically, you have requested:

1. What is the total number of citizen complaints made against your
department’s officers annually for the last 10 years?

Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language,
unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained,
exonerated).

2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against
their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years?

Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language,
unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained,
exonerated).

3. What is the total number of calls for service your department received
annually for the past 10 years?

4. What is the number of officers involved in shootings in your department
for the past 10 years?

Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in
discipline.

5. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to
any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.

We will contact you as soon as possible with our findings, and will send you
a cost estimate for your requested materials if fulfilling the request is
expected to exceed $10.00, per 950 C.M.R. 32.06(1); 950 C.M.R. 32.03; M.G.L.
c 66 § 10(a).

Please be advised that we research each request in the order it was
received, and it may take longer than ten days to be fulfilled. If your
request requires a substantial amount of research, reviewing and
redacting,fulfilling the request will take a significant amount of time.
Please plan accordingly.

Thank you,

Office of Media Relations
Boston Police Department
617-343-3520 <(617)%20343-3520> <(617)%20343-3520>
www.bpdnews.com

--
Office of Media Relations
Boston Police Headquarters
One Schroeder Plaza
Boston, MA 02120
(617) 343-4520

Please note the NEW Media Relations email is:
*mediarelations@pd.boston.gov <mediarelations@pd.boston.gov>*

From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

I am writing to follow up on my original request made on 7/18/17.

We have located some of the information we are looking for on your website.

Thank you very much for providing the information we requested. I am writing to ask for some clarification regarding the data on officer-involved shootings. We requested the total number of annual officer involved shootings each year for the past 10 years.

While you sent us data on officer complaints, the OIS data seems to have been overlooked. Could you please provide that data? If not, could you please clarify that your department does not collect OIS (officer involved shooting) data.

If you are able to provide the data, please define what constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department. For example, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.

Respectfully, -Alex Cartwright

From: Muckrock Staff

To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following request, copied below. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

From: Boston Police Department

Good Morning:

You may wish to file this request on the City's public records request
portal for the Boston Police Department:

WWW.BPDNEWS.COM

Yours truly,

Shawn A. Williams, Esq.

Director of Public Records
<http://www.boston.gov/departments/public-records>

Records Access Officer

City of Boston

One City Hall Square

Boston, MA 02201

publicrecords@boston.gov

Files

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