Search Warrant Data (Fargo Police Department)

LPL filed this request with the Fargo Police Department of Fargo, ND.
Multi Request Search Warrant Data
Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

Communications

From: LPL


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the North Dakota Open Records Law, I hereby request the following records:

For all search warrants, applications for search warrants, cancellations, and authorization for search warrants between 2012 to the date of processing this request, please provide the following points of record for each:

Full Name of requester
If arrest, arrest ID (eg some cities/states use, "Incident Report")
Reason(s) for search warrant (typically either hand-written, or checkboxes)
Badge ID (or similar) of requester
District/Unit
Name of Judge
Name of approving officer
Whether an Arrest happened
Requested location of search warrant
Location of search warrant execution
Type of search warrant
Statements used to justify search warrant
Time and date when search warrant was submitted for approval
Time and date when search warrant was executed
Whether anything was seized
Whether anything was found
License plate of vehicle (if relevant)
Race of person for search warrant
Age of person for search warrant
State of person for search warrant
Whether an informant was involved
Method of contact with informant leading to search warrant (eg, phone call, mail, fax, email, etc)
Description of person search warrant executed on
Legal code of violation
Description of violation
Date of violation
If search warrant related to debt: name of company debt is owed to, amount owed
Whether FBI involved
ID associated with FBI document (eg, IR #)
Whether search warrant was cancelled
Whether contraband found
Whether narcotics found

The records responsive to this request are likely available in a database, or in some query-able format. If your department or agency does not have direct access to the records, please raise to the respective department that can run queries directly (eg, through SQL).

Should your agency not have all of the requested records within a single record or document, please provide me the relevant documents that do, even if that requires more than one class of document. Should some of the records be unavailable, please let me know ahead of time so that we can narrow the request accordingly.

As the records responsive to this request are imperative for understanding how search warrants are executed, I ask that the public interest of these records be evaluated to the extent that the public's interest outweighs this request's burden. To add, this request is being sent to the largest city of every state and will be collated together to create a comprehensive map of search warrants throughout the US. As such, the records are not only important for understanding search warrants at a local level, but also at a national and state-wide level.

Please ensure that provided documents comply with Section 508, as these records will be shared with members of the public who are covered under the ADA. This guide should be helpful: https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/making-files-accessible/checklist/pdf/index.html

If this request was sent to the wrong department or agency, please let me know so that I can send to the correct place.

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 10 business days.

Sincerely,

Lucy Parsons Labs

From: Fargo Police Department

Hello,

I have passed your open records request to the appropriate unit within our department for review.

Respectfully,

Deputy Chief Joe Anderson
Criminal Investigations Division
Fargo Police Department
222 4th St. N.
Fargo, ND 58102
Ph: (701) 476-4174
FBI NA 250th Session
[cid:image001.png@01CDEE79.0BC18DA0]
SAFETY - COURTESY - EMPATHY - TRUST

From: Fargo Police Department

To whom it may concern: MuckRock News. Lucy Parsons Labs

Here is my response to your open records request.

I have checked with different departments in the Fargo Police Department to see if they have a spreadsheet tracking search warrants done. No one does. So at this time I really have no starting point so I can give you the information you are requesting. For example, if I am looking to see how many narcotics search warrants were done in this time, I would need to open each narcotics case to see if a warrant was used. This would be very labor and time intensive for someone to open every case. There would also be warrants for other reasons, such as property crimes, personal crimes, social media, cell phones, etc.

It would be my recommendation for you to contact the Cass County Clerk-District Court. When the Fargo Police Department serves a search warrant, they must do a return to the Court. They may have some of the information you are requesting or may be able to tell you how many warrants we did.

If the Clerk gives you the names and case numbers for our cases, we would be able to look them up in our system. Obviously my staff will then need to put in time to get you the information you are requesting. So depending of the number of cases my staff needs to open and look at, I would need to look at how much of a possible deposit I would request prior to starting your request. I would be charging what the State of ND Open Record Guidelines would allow. It would seem this would be a very large process so you will be looking at a deposit of several hundred dollars and possibly into the thousands of dollars.

So at this time I am closing your open record request until I hear back from you. My response may get you to think about what you are looking for and you may narrow your request. If you do submit a new and narrowed down request, I will review the request and evaluate it independently.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Below is the body of your email which contains your request.

Have a good day.

November 1, 2019
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the North Dakota Open Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
For all search warrants, applications for search warrants, cancellations, and authorization for search warrants between 2012 to the date of processing this request, please provide the following points of record for each:
Full Name of requester
If arrest, arrest ID (eg some cities/states use, "Incident Report")
Reason(s) for search warrant (typically either hand-written, or checkboxes)
Badge ID (or similar) of requester
District/Unit
Name of Judge
Name of approving officer
Whether an Arrest happened
Requested location of search warrant
Location of search warrant execution
Type of search warrant
Statements used to justify search warrant
Time and date when search warrant was submitted for approval
Time and date when search warrant was executed
Whether anything was seized
Whether anything was found
License plate of vehicle (if relevant)
Race of person for search warrant
Age of person for search warrant
State of person for search warrant
Whether an informant was involved
Method of contact with informant leading to search warrant (eg, phone call, mail, fax, email, etc)
Description of person search warrant executed on
Legal code of violation
Description of violation
Date of violation
If search warrant related to debt: name of company debt is owed to, amount owed
Whether FBI involved
ID associated with FBI document (eg, IR #)
Whether search warrant was cancelled
Whether contraband found
Whether narcotics found
The records responsive to this request are likely available in a database, or in some query-able format. If your department or agency does not have direct access to the records, please raise to the respective department that can run queries directly (eg, through SQL).
Should your agency not have all of the requested records within a single record or document, please provide me the relevant documents that do, even if that requires more than one class of document. Should some of the records be unavailable, please let me know ahead of time so that we can narrow the request accordingly.
As the records responsive to this request are imperative for understanding how search warrants are executed, I ask that the public interest of these records be evaluated to the extent that the public's interest outweighs this request's burden. To add, this request is being sent to the largest city of every state and will be collated together to create a comprehensive map of search warrants throughout the US. As such, the records are not only important for understanding search warrants at a local level, but also at a national and state-wide level.
Please ensure that provided documents comply with Section 508, as these records will be shared with members of the public who are covered under the ADA. This guide should be helpful: https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/making-files-accessible/checklist/pdf/index.html
If this request was sent to the wrong department or agency, please let me know so that I can send to the correct place.
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 10 business days.
Sincerely,
Lucy Parsons Labs
Filed via MuckRock.com
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MuckRock News
DEPT MR 82751
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
[http://email.requests.muckrock.com/o/eJwVyjsSwiAQANDTSMmwC4RQ0CQTr-GwfBQjYSRJ4e3V-r3otB5Yqr68biU6ENIgWPZwWaEhm0ccbDJkBHogooBZKhKRPCsOBVgAATDKQRsOfAK9XCclpZ4XlNpclOjpfab92Hk9w9pbWHlolXX39FtMfW_b74RyfFrOvt_bX7_leCxA]

Sgt. Kevin Volrath
Fargo Police Department
105 25 ST. N
Fargo, ND 58102

Office Phone Number (701)241-1416

From: LPL

Could you clarify - in your search and questioning, did you only explicitly ask for spreadsheets? Surely the data exists in a queryable format, in some way or another. Perhaps you could ask the vendor that created the case tracking system?

Thank you

From: LPL

Also, while your suggestions are appreciated, I'm confused - why exactly did you close this request so early without even any questions or request to narrow? I am getting a strong impression that your agency is closing this request in bad faith.

Thank you.

From: Fargo Police Department

To Whom this may concern: MuckRock News, Lucy Parsons Lab

In reviewing your request, you are not just asking for one record response. Your request is very broad. As my previous email stated, I am unable to search for all of the search warrants from 2012. Our current record system will not search for search warrants. The search warrants are scanned into the report and are not a separate report. So I will need the report number to open the report and then get the warrant.

Your current request does not reasonably identify an existing record. So I will not be responding to this Request for Information unless you specify which record(s) you are seeking.

I would still refer you to the Cass County Clerk-District Court.

So I will delay closing your open record request until I receive a written clarification for your request.

In a separate email, you asked me to clarify my response regarding spreadsheets. Since I am unable to handle your request to search for the search warrants in the record keeping system, I asked the supervisors of the Narcotics, Street Crimes, Property Crime Unit and Personal Crime Unit if they have any independent records. Do they possibly use a spread sheet or some other method to track search warrants they have done? They told me they do not. If they did have these records, I would have been able to use them for your request. However, they do not.

Have a good day.

Sgt. Kevin Volrath
Fargo Police Department
105 25 ST. N
Fargo, ND 58102

Office Phone Number (701)241-1416

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