Employee listing (Buffalo Police Department)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:

A listing of every officer and/or employee of the agency, including name, office address, title and salary.

Per NEW YORK PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW, ARTICLE 6, Section 87(3)(b):

"Each agency shall maintain:
[....]
(b) a record setting forth the name, public office address, title and salary of every officer or employee of the agency."

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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Lesser

Captain Antonio -

Thank you for sending the attached cost estimate regarding the FOIL request for a listing of employees of the Buffalo Department of Police. Two questions:

1) Is an digital electronic copy of this information maintained? If so, please provide this document in its digital format, per the original request.

2) The FOIL statute requires each agency to maintain "a record setting forth the name, public office address, title and salary of every officer or employee of the agency." In the attached response, you indicate that names were not displayed due to privacy issues. Several law enforcement agencies have released this same document without any names redacted.

Furthermore, neither NY Public Officer's Law 87-2a (which exempts from release under FOIL any documents whose release is barred via another statute) nor NYS Civil Rights law 50(a) (which applies to personnel records) seems to apply to the requested employee listing. Per the New York Committee on Open Government's description of that law (available online at: http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f7602.htm):

"[...T]hat statute provides that personnel records of police and correction officers that are used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion are confidential. The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, in reviewing the legislative history leading to its enactment, has held that §50-a is not a statute that exempts records from disclosure when a request is made under the Freedom of Information Law in a context unrelated to litigation."

As this is a request for a record that entirely unrelated to performance evaluation, nor is it requested in the context of litigation, NYS Civil Rights law 50(a) is inapplicable.

Please confirm whether this employee listing is available in digital format, and advise as to the release of the full listing including the name, public office address, title and salary of every officer or employee of the Buffalo Department of Police.

Thank you.

Captain Antonio -

Attached is a letter in which you wrote: "Per NYS Civil Rights law 50(a) and NY Public Officer's law 87-2a the names were not displayed due to privacy issues."

Please confirm that the document you will send will include all four required components for this employee listing: name, title, office location and salary. Furthermore, please also advise whether this document is available in digital format. If so, please send in this format by email.

Thank you.

Apologies. Please find the letter attached.

Thank you.

Captain Antonio -

Thank you for clarifying. A check will be sent right away.

Enclosed please find a check for $5, per the attached fee estimate letter for this FOIL request. Please send the employee listing to the address listed below.

Thank you.