MMIW Cases (Flagstaff Police Department)
| Multi Request | MMIW Cases |
| Submitted | July 7, 2018 |
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Communications
From: Sovereign Bodies Institute
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Arizona Public Records, I hereby request the following records:
Data on all cases of: unsolved missing persons, homicides, suspicious deaths, and deaths in custody involving an Alaska Native/American Indian woman or girl victim within your jurisdiction(s). For the purposes of this request, "Alaska Native/American Indian" is defined as any individual who was identified as a member of an Alaska Native or American Indian community or as having Alaska Native/American Indian heritage. "Woman or girl" includes all victims identified as females, as well as transgender women. If there are any Jane Does that have been identified as potentially Alaska Native or American Indian, please include them as well.
This request is for basic information on cases as classified above. Such information may include but is not limited to victim name, location and date of disappearance/death, age of victim, status of case (solved or unsolved).
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,
Annita Lucchesi
From: Flagstaff Police Department
Hello Ms. Lucchesi,
The Flagstaff Police Department is in receipt of your public records request outlined below. I am not sure if you are familiar with Arizona Public Records law but we are not required to compile information upon request if it does not already exist in complied form. We do not currently have the information you have requested in a complied format.
We are however willing to conduct a search for the information if we can easily obtain the information you are requesting from our database without any hand search of documents. However, your request does not specify a time frame for the records such as the last 5 years or last 3 years. A request without a specified time from could be deemed unduly burdensome and also grounds to deny the requested information under Arizona Public Records law. If you provide us with a time frame you are looking for we may be able to conduct a search and provide you with some of the information you are requesting.
Additionally, if we are able to provide you with some or all of the information you have requested you will be charged copying fees for the documents provided. We do not grant exceptions to this requirement and treat all public records requests the same regardless of who is requesting the records. We will however inform you of the cost prior to undertaking any copying so you can determine if you wish to proceed with your request.
If you have any questions or concerns I am happy to discuss those with you. I can be reached at (928)213-3376. So you are aware I will be out of the office beginning July 12 through July 24.
Marianne E. Sullivan
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Legal Advisor for Police and Fire
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
From: Sovereign Bodies Institute
Hello Ms Sullivan,
I am requesting records of these cases from 1900 to the present. If records that old have not been digitized are not readily available in the database, please amend this request to begin with whatever year the data is available within the database.
Thank you,
Annita
From: Flagstaff Police Department
Ms. Lucchesi,
Unfortunately we do not have records digitized from that long ago. Our searchable database goes back to 2001. Upon further research it appears we will only be able to provide you with information for missing persons and homicides from our database.
We will begin the search process and as indicated contact you with a price prior to making copies for you.
Marianne E. Sullivan
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Legal Advisor for Police and Fire
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
From: Sovereign Bodies Institute
Ms Sullivan,
Thank you for letting me know. The data beginning in 2001 would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Annita
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Arizona Public Records request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 7, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Flagstaff Police Department
I'm sorry for the delay these emails went into my spam folder. Our Analyst has been working on some time sensitive projects but expects to have the data you requested by next week.
Marianne E. Sullivan
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Legal Advisor for Police and Fire
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
From: Flagstaff Police Department
Hello Ms. Lucchesi,
We have the information you requested. It will be 22 pages total at a cost of .50 a page for 11.00 total.
The information we are providing includes the police report number, the type of the report missing person or homicide, the sate of the report, the street location of the report, the name of the person missing or victim, their race, age, sex, the state of the case. Code 5 means information or non crime and code 3 is closed/cleared, the last column has the date code number status was entered.
I have included Kristen Decker from our records department on the email, you can communicate with her how to arrange payment and where she can mail the documents.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Marianne E. Sullivan
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Legal Advisor for Police and Fire
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
From: Sovereign Bodies Institute
To Whom It May Concern:
Please find enclosed a check for $11.00 to satisfy the fee associated with the attached public records request.
Thank you.
From: Flagstaff Police Department
A copy of documents responsive to the request.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Arizona Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 7, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Flagstaff Police Department
This information was mailed August 27.
Kristin Decker
Admin Specialist
Flagstaff Police Department
Records
928-214-2530
From: Sovereign Bodies Institute
Ms Decker,
Could the agency please clarify which of the missing persons cases in the records sent to us are currently still listed as missing?
Thank you,
Annita
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Arizona Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 7, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Arizona Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 7, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Flagstaff Police Department
We previously provided you with the explanation for the codes as follows:
The information we are providing includes the police report number, the type of the report missing person or homicide, the sate of the report, the street location of the report, the name of the person missing or victim, their race, age, sex, the state of the case. Code 5 means information or non crime and code 3 is closed/cleared, the last column has the date code number status was entered.
This should answer your question. If there is a code 5 it is listed as an information report or a non crime report and a code 3 is closed or cleared. Additionally, as I explained previously we are not required, under Arizona Public Records Law to complied information that does not exist. We did compile this information for you as a curtsey but we are unable to provide you with any further information.
If you wish to discuss this matter further please feel free to call me at (929)213-3376
Marianne E. Sullivan
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Legal Advisor for Police and Fire
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
From: Sovereign Bodies Institute
Ms Sullivan,
Thank you for the explanation, it's greatly appreciated. This data is for a national project assessing the number of such cases in urban Indian communities, so we are just wanting to make sure we are understanding these records correctly and representing Flagstaff in an accurate manner. For missing persons cases that are listed as a code 5, does that mean the person is still missing? I understand code 5 is a non-crime, but a missing persons case is not a crime, just a missing person. So are the code 3 missing persons located safe, and the code 5 missing persons still missing? To reiterate, just trying to understand which of these people are still currently missing.
Thank you,
Annita
From: Flagstaff Police Department
We understand the importance of the project you are working on and therefore did agree to provide you with the requested information despite not legally being required to do so. I spoke to our analyst who put the information together and she indicated as follows:
If Code 1, still missing
If Code 2, found
If Code 3, found
If Code 5, found
We hope this answers your question.
Marianne E. Sullivan
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Legal Advisor for Police and Fire
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
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