cabbie arrests

Adam Vaccaro filed this request with the Boston Police Department of Boston, MA.
Submitted Sept. 15, 2015
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Adam Vaccaro

Subject: None

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

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

Any police report filed by riders of a taxicab, related to their experience in a taxicab, dating back to June, 2013.

And any police report filed by riders of a for-hire ride-share services Uber and Lyft, related to their experience with the service, dating back to June, 2013.

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 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 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Adam Vaccaro

From: Media Relations

Subject: Re: Public Records Law Request: cabbie arrests

Email

September 17, 2015

Adam Vaccaro
Muckrock

Dear Mr. Vaccaro:

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:

Any police report filed by riders of a taxicab, related to their experience
in a taxicab, dating back to June, 2013.

And any police report filed by riders of a for-hire ride-share services
Uber and Lyft, related to their experience with the service, dating back to
June, 2013.

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
www.bpdnews.com

From: Media Relations

Subject: Re: Public Records Law Request: cabbie arrests

Email

Dear Mr. Vaccaro,

The Boston Police Department has researched and attempted to locate records
that may be responsive to this request. It should be noted that to search
for police reports a "key word" search was done. Using your request, key
words for this request would include "Taxi" "Uber" and Lyft" and variations
thereof. That type of search would yield an extremely large number of
police reports including e.g. Taxi cab accidents, larcenies from inside a
taxi, lost property reports, medical assists, stolen vehicles, etc.
Additionally your request for all police reports with a certain context
would require the reading of "all" police reports to ascertain the context
of each. That task is not feasible given the vagueness of your request.

The Boston Police would be happy to assist you in narrowing your request or
perhaps identifying additional key words you may want to include to limit
the response. If you are seeking complaints against licensed hackney
drivers we can provide documents responsive to that request, however the
BPD does not regulate or track citizen complaints against UBER or Lyft
drivers.

Please let us know how you would like to proceed or if my office can be of
further assistance,

Lt Mike McCarthy
Director, Media Relations

From: Adam Vaccaro

Subject: RE: Public Records Law Request: cabbie arrests

Email

Lt. McCarthy:

Thank you for the note, and apologies for my delayed response. I would be interested in seeing complaints against licensed Hackney drivers, as you suggest, as a first step toward making this request work. Please let me know if that would still be feasible.

Thanks again,
Adam

From: Chung, Cassandra (SEC)

Subject: RE: Public Records Law Request: cabbie arrests

Email

Hello,

Received and acknowledged, thank you.

Cassandra Chung

Secretary of the Commonwealth
Public Records Division
One Ashburton Place, Room 1719
Boston, MA 02108-1512
Tel (617) 727-2836
Fax (617) 727-5914

From: Media Relations

Subject: Re: Public Records Law Request: cabbie arrests

Email

Adam,

Please find attached spreadsheet of all complaints received by the BPD
against licensed hackney drivers pursuant to your modified request. Please
be advised that some of the information contained on the spreadsheet has
been removed pursuant to M.G.L. c. 4 s 7(26)(c). M.G.L. c. 4 s 7(26)(c)
allows a custodian to withhold information of a specifically named
idividual, the disclosure of which may constitute an unwarranted invasion
or personal privacy. Accordingly, the names of the complainant when known,
have been removed to protect the privacy of those who filed the complaint
and to protect integrity of the complaint process so as not to discourage
the public from filing a complaint.

Should you have any questions please let us know.

Lt McCarthy

From: Adam Vaccaro

Subject: RE: Public Records Law Request: cabbie arrests

Email

Hi Lt. McCarthy,

Thanks so much for providing this, it's much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Adam Vaccaro

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