School Police Officers (Chicago Public Schools)

Dear Sarika :

Thank you for your interest in Chicago Public Schools. Your FOIA request has been received and is being processed. Your FOIA Center reference number for tracking purposes is: N004990-072018
You have requested the following records: To Whom It May Concern:Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act., I hereby request the following records:-Any policies related to the role of the Chicago Police Department (i.e. counseling, disciplinary intervention)-Any contracts and memorandums of understanding between the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Police Department-Any email communications between employees of the Chicago Public Schools and those of the Chicago Police Department-Any logs/records of school incident referrals to the Chicago Police Department or other law enforcement between January 1, 2013 to the date this request is processed-Any complaints submitted to the Chicago Public Schools between January 1, 2013 to the date this request is processed that include any of the following phrases:-'police'-'police officer'-'police department'-'safety coordinator'-'resource officer'Please provide materials on a rolling basis, as they become available. We request that the requested complaints please be made available to us as soon as possible.If you have any questions, please feel free to clarify via phone at 610-637-7745.The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.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 5 business days, as the statute requires.Sincerely,Sarika Ram
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) responds to all public records requests in accordance with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 ILCS 140/1 et seq.

Due to the high volume of FOIA requests received by CPS, we are unable to fulfill your request within 5 business days. Section 3(e)(vi) of FOIA permits CPS to extend the response time to 10 business days if a request cannot be fulfilled in 5 business days without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the District. We hereby extend the response time to your FOIA request to 10 business days in accordance with 5 ILCS 140/3(e)(vi).

If further time is needed to assemble and copy all documents responsive to your FOIA request, we will contact you with a time estimate and a request to extend.

Upon the completion of a response, CPS will provide the first 50 pages to you at no charge.  If a response is more than 50 pages, a fee of 15¢ per page will be charged for each additional page. Copies of video recordings have a fee of $48. All applicable fees must be paid prior to the copying. CPS will inform you of any fees due if your paper response exceeds 50 pages. You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below and you’ll receive an email when your request has been completed. Thank you for using the CPS FOIA Center.
Track the issue status and respond at:
https://mycusthelp.info/CPS//_cs/RequestEdit.aspx?rid=4990 (https://mycusthelp.info/CPS//_cs/RequestEdit.aspx?rid=4990)

--- Please respond above this line ---
August 3, 2018 Sarika Ram requests@muckrock.com
RE: Chicago Public Schools FOIA Request N004990-072018
Dear Ms. Ram: This letter is in reply to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the following information: -Any policies related to the role of the Chicago Police Department (i.e. counseling, disciplinary intervention) -Any contracts and memorandums of understanding between the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Police Department RESPONSE : The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) FOIA Department has reviewed this portion of your request and determined that, as currently written, it is overly broad and burdensome in failing to specify a timeframe. However, the CPS has interpreted this portion of your request to be for the most recent available documents. Documents responsive to your request are available to download via the CPS FOIA Center at www.cps.edu/FOIARequests . Please log in with your username and password to access the records. If these documents are not what you seek then pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/3(g), we are asking that you narrow your request to more manageable proportions.  If you do not modify or revise your request to more manageable proportions with ten (10) business days, your request will be considered denied. -Any email communications between employees of the Chicago Public Schools and those of the Chicago Police Department RESPONSE : The CPS FOIA Department has reviewed this portion of your request and determined that, as written, it is overly burdensome. It is onerous to conduct an email search given the parameters set forth in your request. The CPS email search engine has the following requirements for a search: (1) the employee name or the email address of the account you wish searched; (2) key words you wish to search for; (3) the email address of each individual’s mailbox, if you seek email correspondence to and from two individuals; and (4) the timeframe to be searched. Your request is missing items (1), (2), (3), and (4). Without the required information, the CPS would need to recreate each and every mailbox for its approximately 36,161 employees, which is both unduly burdensome and costly.  That aside, after recreating each of these email boxes, each and every email message would have to be downloaded and reviewed to determine if it is responsive to your request or is exempt from disclosure. Also, each and every page would then have to be reviewed to determine if it is exempt from disclosure, along with redacting any portion of that item that is not public under the FOIA. Thereby, as your FOIA request is currently written, the dedication of staff and/or resources is unduly burdensome on the daily operations of the Chicago Public Schools. This is not a denial of your request. Pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/3(g), we are asking that you narrow your request to more manageable proportions.  However, if you do not modify or revise your request to more manageable proportions with ten (10) business days, your request will be considered denied. -Any logs/records of school incident referrals to the Chicago Police Department or other law enforcement between January 1, 2013 to the date this request is processed RESPONSE : After an initial review, it was determined that there are over 20,000 logged incidents of police notifications district wide from January 1, 2013 to present. In order to comply with this request, the District would, at a minimum, have to review each and every entry of the more than five (5) years’ worth of documents for highly sensitive student information as well as other information exempt under the FOIA. Thereby, as your FOIA request is currently written, the dedication of staff and/or resources is unduly burdensome on the daily operations of the CPS. You may wish to narrow the timeframe of your request and/or narrow by school(s). This is not a denial of your request. Pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/3(g), we are asking that you narrow your request to more manageable proportions.  However, if you do not modify or revise your request to more manageable proportions with ten (10) business days, your request will be considered denied. Please note, the CPS publishes statistics regarding police notifications publicly online at the following link: https://cps.edu/SchoolData/Pages/SchoolData.aspx . Select the “Metrics” tab and select the spreadsheets next to “Spreadsheets and Expulsions” -Any complaints submitted to the Chicago Public Schools between January 1, 2013 to the date this request is processed that include any of the following phrases: -'police' -'police officer' -'police department' -'safety coordinator' -'resource officer' RESPONSE : The CPS has no responsive documents as per your request as the District does not have a “complaint” database or maintain records that reflect the information you seek broken down in the manner you indicate. Additionally, the term "complaint" does not refer to a reasonably identifiable public record because what constitutes a "complaint" can vary widely based on situation and subject matter. Therefore, compiling the requested information as you seek in order to comply with your request would fall outside of the scope of the FOIA pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/7 which states: “This Act is not intended to create an obligation on the part of any public body to maintain or prepare any public record which was not maintained or prepared by such public body at the time when this Act becomes effective, except as otherwise required by applicable local, State or federal law.” Because of its sheer size (approx. 380,000 students/30,000 employees) the District does not maintain an overall ‘complaints’ database and does not, in the ordinary course of business, maintain or generate reports showing "complaints" made to CPS about individual employees and therefore has no means to comprehensively identify "complaint" records as those records may be in the possession of or located in any number of CPS schools, offices, departments or individuals past and present.  Note that the requirements of FOIA apply to public records “having been prepared by or for, or having been or being used by, received by, or in the possession of, or under the control of any public body.” [5 ILCS 140/2(c)]  Accordingly, FOIA applies to the provision of existing public records; a public body is not required to answer questions or generate new records in response to a FOIA request.  Kenyon v. Garrels, 184 Ill. App. 3d 28,32 (4th Dist. 1989); see also Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Admin., 678 F. 2d 315, 321 (D.C. Cir. 1922) (“A requester is entitled only to records that an agency has in fact chosen to create and retain.”). Further, Section 1 of the FOIA states in part: "This Act is not intended to create an obligation on the part of any public body to maintain or prepare any public record which was not maintained or prepared by such public body at the time when this Act becomes effective, except as otherwise required by applicable local, State or federal law." In accordance with Section 1 of Illinois FOIA, the District is not required to conduct research to answer questions or prepare researched records in response to a specific query [5 ILCS 140/1]. In the case of a denial, pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/9.5(a) you may file a Request for Review with the Public Access Counselor (PAC) at: Public Access Counselor; Office of the Attorney General; 500 South 2nd Street; Springfield, IL 62706.  You also have the right to seek judicial review of your denial by filing a lawsuit in the State circuit court; 5 ILCS 140/11. If you have any questions, please contact our office at (773) 553-3500. Thank you for your request. Sincerely, Annie Righi Freedom of Information Act Assistant Chicago Public Schools

Dear Sarika Ram,
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In the meantime, I have attached a copy of the Chicago Public School's
response to your FOIA request N004990-072018 as well as responsive
documents. Thank you.
--
Annie Righi
Freedom of Information Act Assistant
Chicago Public Schools
773-553-3826