Cincinnati Police Department, Cincinnati, OH Request

Dear Jenny Wadhwa:
Thank you for your interest in public records of City of Cincinnati. Your request has been received and is being processed in accordance with the Ohio Sunshine Law.  Your request was received in this office on 4/10/2024 and given the reference number P187479-041024 for tracking purposes. Records Requested: To Whom it may concern,
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Any and all records from the past year regarding your nuisance property ordinance that will be referred to as ordinance in this request but could be known (but not limited to) as Chronic Nuisance Premises as described in Chapter 761 of the city code.
Please provide any and all written records (including but not limited to hard-copy documents, memos, emails, word processor documents, PDF documents, PowerPoint files, images files, video files etc.) regarding the Ordinance including but not limited to:
• police calls, reports, citations, or arrests, collected by the municipality police department for the purpose of enforcing the ordinance
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.
Sincerely,
Jenny Wadhwa

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Your request will be forwarded to the relevant department(s) to locate the information you seek and to determine the volume and any costs associated with satisfying your request. You will be contacted about the availability and/or provided with copies of the records in question. PLEASE NOTE: The Ohio Sunshine Law does not require a governmental body to create new information, to do legal research, or to answer questions.
You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below and you'll receive an email when your request has been completed. If this is your first time logging into your account, please select "If you don't know or have forgotten your password - CLICK HERE".  This is located beneath the "Submit" button on the front login page.

Again, thank you for using the Records Request Center.
City of Cincinnati

--- Please respond above this line ---
RE: Open Records Request of April 10, 2024, Reference # P187479-041024

Dear Mr./Ms. Wadhwa,
The City of Cincinnati received a Public Records Request from you. Requests made pursuant to Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) are denied because FOIA and its exceptions do not apply to Ohio municipalities. Requests must be made pursuant to the Ohio Public Records Act, R.C. Section 149.43. State ex rel. Carr v. City of Akron, 112 Ohio St. 3d 351, 2006-Ohio-6714, ¶ 33. Additionally, your request is not a proper request under Ohio public records law. Because the standards for a proper public records request are distinct from the standards for a discovery request, a public records request asking for records “regarding or relating to” a topic is improper as a public records request. Decranev. City of Cleveland, 2018-Ohio-3651, Court of Claims Case No.2018-00358PQ, ¶ 6, citing State ex rel. Thomas v. Ohio State University,71 Ohio St. 3d 245, 1994-Ohio-261. Similarly, a request for “all “correspondence fails to identify the records sought with sufficient clarity. Id. See also Ebersole v. City of Powell,2018-Ohio-4597, Court of Claims Case No. 2018-00478PQ, ¶¶ 22-23 (request for “any and all written correspondence between, by, or among any one or more of “various parties, including “representatives” of a public office, is overbroad and ambiguous). A proper public records request must fairly and specifically describe the records being sought, State ex rel. Carr v. London Corr. Inst., 144 Ohio St. 3d211 (2015); State ex rel. Zidonis v. Columbus State Community College,133 Ohio St. 3d 122 (2012), so the public office can identify responsive records based on the manner in which it ordinarily maintains and accesses those records. State ex rel. Morgan v. Strickland, 121 Ohio St. 3d 600 (2009). In addition, Ohio public records law does not require a City to do research to satisfy a public records request, which includes identifying a person’s “representatives” or non-City parties described by title. State ex rel. Oriana House, Inc. v. Montgomery, 2005-Ohio-3377, ¶9 (denying as overbroad and vague a request for communications with “the Summit County Republican Party's employees, board members, representatives, lobbyists, agents, or consultants,” because it “would require [the public office] to conduct their own research into which persons fell into these titles, groups, and categories”). The City denies your request, as written, because it is overbroad and ambiguous, and would require the City to conduct research. It would require the City to interpret your intent rather than retrieve specific communications and documents. Finally, t he City cannot provide the records you requested because it does not keep a record of code enforcement by topic, rather it maintains records by address. Your request would require the City to do research to determine which addresses may have been cited in connection with this ordinance. Public offices are not obligated under the Ohio Public Records Act to do research to fulfill a records request and are not required to create a new record that does not currently exist. State ex rel. Shaughnessy v. City of Cleveland, No. 2015-0360, 2016-Ohio-8447, ¶ 11, citing O.R.C. § 149.43(B)(2).