Denver Independent Police Monitor, Citizen Complaints
| Submitted | Aug. 11, 2017 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. This project requires us to request data from your department. If you have questions about this request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
3. What is the total number of calls for service your department received annually for the past 10 years? If your department logs calls for service in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
4. What is the annual number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.
Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).
Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.
5. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.
Collecting this information is very important to our research, so we would like to emphasize, if you have questions about my request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
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 3 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
From: Dulacki, Mary J. - MOS
Didn't we recently respond to your request?
Sent from my iPhone
Please excuse any typos
From: Dulacki, Mary J. - MOS
Please see the response sent to your earlier request below. I believe that this is the same request you have resubmitted.
Mary Dulacki | Records Administrator
Department of Public Safety| City and County of Denver
p: 720.913.6262 | mary.dulacki@denvergov.org
[https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/534/images/DenverEmailSignature.jpg]
This e-mail and any attachments thereto are intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and any attachments thereto is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify me immediately at 720-913-6262 and permanently delete the original and destroy any copies or printouts. Thank you.
________
From: Dulacki, Mary J. - MOS
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2017 1:07 PM
To: 'requests@muckrock.com' <requests@muckrock.com>
Cc: Jackson, Sonny A. - DPD ADM Administrative Mgmt & Finance <Sonny.Jackson@denvergov.org>; PIO - DPD <DPDPIO@denvergov.org>; Daelene D. - MOS Mix (Daelene.Mix@denvergov.org) <Daelene.Mix@denvergov.org>
Subject: RE: Colorado Open Records Act Request: Denver CO, PD Citizen Complaints
Dear Professor Cartwright-
Please accept this response to your request from Saturday. If you have any questions concerning the responses below, please do not hesitate to contact me.
1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead. Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
The Office of the Independent Monitor is a civilian agency with oversight over the Denver Police Department. Data responsive to this portion of your request is available on line in the OIM’s annual reports at https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/office-of-the-independent-monitor.htm.
2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead. Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
Data on the number of internal complaints may also be found in the OIM annual reports.
3. What is the total number of calls for service your department received annually for the past 10 years? If your department logs calls for service in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead
Police Calls for Service
Citizen Initiated
Officer Initiated
TOTAL DISPATCHED
2007
326,079
180,810
506,889
2008
324,600
170,256
494,856
2009
314,718
167,083
481,801
2010
319,558
146,054
465,612
2011
325,878
130,043
455,921
2012
336,135
176,432
512,567
2013
301,246
189,219
490,465
2014
297,970
216,429
514,399
2015
314,498
217,096
531,594
2016
317,038
282,923
599,961
4. What is the annual number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.
Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).
Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.
Data and details on the officer-involved shootings that occur within the City and County of Denver may be found in the Police Shooting Decision Letters posted on the Denver DA’s website under the “news and Info” link at http://www.denverda.org.
Please note that though a shooting decision letter is issued each time a peace officer shoots and wounds or kills a person in the City; not all of the shootings involve members of the Denver Police Department and you should open each letter to learn which agency was involved in the specific incident.
5. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.
Please see the websites above.
Mary Dulacki | Records Administrator
Department of Public Safety| City and County of Denver
p: 720.913.6262 | mary.dulacki@denvergov.org
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From: MuckRock
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. This project requires us to request data from your department. If you have questions about this request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
3. What is the total number of calls for service your department received annually for the past 10 years? If your department logs calls for service in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
4. What is the annual number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.
Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).
Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.
5. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.
Collecting this information is very important to our research, so we would like to emphasize, if you have questions about my request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
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 3 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
From: Fehrmann, Nathaniel P. - Ofc of the Independent Monitor
Dear Professors Cartwright and Dirmeyer:
We have received your request for documentation that may be in the possession of our office, and we will do our utmost to accommodate your request. However, before we can even begin estimating the hours it will take to provide the information and/or records you're requesting, we need some clarification.
As an initial matter, we note that, in response to request numbers 1 and 2, Ms. Dulacki provided you with the link to our website where copies of our public reports for the last ten years may be obtained. Since you are asking for annual numbers, it doesn't make sense to us that you would be seeking data or records collected after our last report, so are you just asking us to confirm that our reports contain the information you're seeking and, if they don't, to provide the remaining data?
Also, request number 4 is confusing in several respects. In the first sentence you ask for the annual number of "officers involved in shootings," but in the next sentence you instead refer to the annual number of "officer-involved shootings," a phrase you repeat in the second and third paragraphs as well. Obviously, those two phrases mean different things and would likely result in different annual numbers. Can we assume that you want the annual number of officer-involved shootings for the past 10 years, as opposed to the number of officers who have been involved in shootings? If not, we'll need you to clarify what you mean when you refer to the number of officers being "involved in" shootings, i.e., does that mean the number of officers who discharged their weapons during an officer-involved shooting incident or does it mean the number of officers who were on-scene when an officer-involved shooting occurred?
Finally, we're confused by the second and third paragraphs of this request because they seem to be asking for the same information. Did you intend to draw a distinction between the number of officer-involved shootings that "involved disciplinary action" versus the number that "result[ed] in discipline?" If so, please explain the distinction. If not, let us know if there's some other distinction between what you're requesting in those two paragraphs (aside from distinguishing between shootings at persons vs. animals, and accidental shootings) so we know what information you're seeking.
We'll look forward to your response.
Nate Fehrmann
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION
This e-mail transmission from the City and County of Denver, and any documents, files, or previous e-mail messages attached to it, are intended solely for the individual(s) to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential, legally privileged, and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized review, forwarding, printing, copying, distribution, or use of this transmission or the information it contains is strictly prohibited. A misdirected transmission does not constitute waiver of any applicable privilege. If you received this transmission in error, please immediately notify the sender and delete the original transmission and its attachments. Thank you.
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