Buffalo PD Trump Rally Records

To Whom It May Concern:

Under the provisions of the New York Freedom of Information Law, Article 6 of the Public Officers Law, I hereby request a copy of all records or portions thereof pertaining to, or containing the following:

Records relating to training with FEMA or any other federal agency for handling mass demonstrations

Records relating to policing the political rally at the First Niagara Center on April 18, 2016, including:
- Cost of police presence
- Number of officers present
- Any memoranda, reports, or briefs regarding the April 18th rally and/or potential protests

Any communications with Donald J Trump for President, Inc or any other organization affiliated with the Donald Trump campaign regarding the April 18th rally and/or potential protests

I understand that there is a fee of $0.25 per page for duplication of the records requested; however, this request is a matter of public concern and is not being made for commercial usage. As such, I request that any fees associated with providing requested records be waived. I also request that documents be provided in electronic format if at all possible. Doing so would eliminate the need to copy the materials and provides another basis for my requested fee waiver.

If, however, such a waiver is denied, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.

As you know, the Freedom of Information Law requires that an agency respond to a request within five (5) business days of receipt of such request. Therefore, I would appreciate a response as soon as possible.

If you determine that some but not all of the information is exempt from disclosure and that you intend to withhold it, I ask that you redact it for the time being and make the rest available as requested. In any event, please provide a notification citing the legal authorities on which you rely if you determine that any or all of the information is exempt and will not be disclosed.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter; I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Sincerely,

Robert Galbraith

Dear Chief Antonio:

Thank you for providing the costs of BPD's presence at the Donald Trump rally. Your response did not include records responsive to the other parts of my request.

I also requested 1) Any communications with Donald J Trump for President, Inc or any other organization affiliated with the Donald Trump campaign regarding the April 18th rally and/or potential protests and 2) Any records relating to training with FEMA or any other federal agency for handling mass demonstrations.

When may I expect to receive these records?

Thank you,

Robert Galbraith

I don't understand.

Prior to the Trump rally, Lt. Jeff Rinaldo told WGRZ that BPD worked with FEMA "to develop new protest tactics."

Last week, Lt. Thomas Whelan told WIVB that Buffalo Police, Erie County Sheriffs, Amherst Police, and other agencies participated in the FEMA Field Force Operations Course "through the Department of Homeland Secuity" over two weeks in September 2015.

The records related to this training are what I requested in April and what I am still asking for now.

Best,

Robert Galbraith

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to appeal a denial of records requested under the New York Freedom of Information Law.

On April 19, 2016, I submitted a request to the Buffalo Police Department seeking access to the following records:

1) Records relating to training with FEMA or any other federal agency for handling mass demonstrations

2) Records relating to policing the political rally at the First Niagara Center on April 18, 2016, including a) Cost of police presence; b) Number of officers present; and c) Any memoranda, reports, or briefs regarding the April 18th rally and/or potential protests

3) Any communications with Donald J Trump for President, Inc or any other organization affiliated with the Donald Trump campaign regarding the April 18th rally and/or potential protests

On May 11, 2016, I received a response declaring the number of officers present at the rally and the cost of police presence. All other aspects of my request were ignored.

On July 6, 2016, I contacted Cpt. Mark Antonio of BPD to inquire about the rest of the records I requested. Cpt. Antonio wrote back on July 11, declaring that there were no other records responsive to my request and that Buffalo Police Department had engaged in no training with FEMA.

When I pointed out to Cpt. Antonio that this was false on July 11, he responded the next day denying access to the records I sought, saying that all records related to Buffalo Police Department's training with FEMA were exempt from FOIL under New York Public Officers Law § 87-2 (a) and (e) (iv).

As Cpt. Antonio was apparently unaware of the FEMA training (despite several accounts of the training in local media over the past three months), the speed with which he declared that all records related to such were exempt from FOIL evinces that the Buffalo Police Department did not make a diligent effort to search for records responsive to my request as required by New York Public Officers Law § 89 (3) (a).

Further, as BPD has obviously not made a diligent search for these records, Cpt. Antonio's blanket assertion that all responsive records are statutorily exempt from disclosure is conclusory and does not assert with necessary specificity which records are allegedly subject to which exemption.

The Freedom of Information Law is based on a presumption of access to public records. The Court of Appeals held that "blanket exemptions for particular types of documents are inimical to FOIL's policy of open government" (Gould v. New York City Police Department, 89 N.Y.2d, 267, 275). An agency seeking to withhold records must "articulate 'particularized and specific justification' for not disclosing the requested records" (Id. citing Matter of Fink v Lefkowitz, 47 N.Y.2d 567, 571).

Here, access to these records has been denied with no particularity or specificity. In fact, as stated above, there appears to have been no diligent effort to ascertain even the number of records responsive to the request, much less which, if any, exemption applies to any specific document.

Because no diligent search for responsive documents was made and because Buffalo Police Department issued a blanket denial with no particularity or specificity, my FOIL request was inappropriately denied. I ask that this denial be overturned and that BPD furnish the records requested on April 11.

Sincerely,

Robert Galbraith