Police department misconduct allegations and disciplinary proceedings

Beryl Lipton filed this request with the Fulton City Police Department of Fulton, NY.

It is a clone of this request.

Due June 24, 2020
Est. Completion Oct. 29, 2021
Status
Awaiting Response

Communications

From: Beryl Lipton

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

All materials and records describing and sufficient to show/disclose all allegations of misconduct made and all disciplinary proceedings taken against any officer, employee, or representative of this policing agency.

As described in the New York Freedom of Information Law, a record is "any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever including, but not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books, manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms, computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes." Records kept in a digital or electronic form are also records, would be responsive to this request, and should be provided.

These records are typically required to be retained under the New York State Records Retention and Disposition Schedule MU-1 (http://www.archives.nysed.gov/records/retention_mu-1), including, but not limited to, item no. 365, which includes: "Investigative records and disciplinary proceedings, including but not limited to statement of charge, transcript of hearing, notice of decision, letter of termination or resignation, letter of reinstatement, record of appeal procedure, and correspondence." While materials under that schedule have a set retention of 3 years after the final decision rendered, this request and materials responsive to it include *all* records held in the possession of any office or individual employed or formerly employed by this policing agency, including those kept off-site, in digital form, and in personnel files.

Please note that any failure to provide all potentially-responsive materials and/or the destruction of materials potentially responsive to this request would be a violation of the spirit of the New York Freedom of Information Law, as well as unlawful under the New York FOIL and the terms of the attached litigation hold notice.

Materials responsive to this request include — but are not limited to — all complaints, reports, records of discipline and penalties, aggregate collections of complaint and disciplinary materials (spreadsheets, databases), investigatory materials, relevant related correspondence, photographs, video, other related evidence, proof of discipline or fulfillment of penalties, and all personnel materials (including those used in promotion, contract, and other employment negotiations and considerations) that reference or utilize misconduct allegations or disciplinary materials of any sort.

Materials responsive to this request include all complaints— internal, external, and civilian — and include records disclosing the names, badge numbers, and personnel identification of each officer involved and/or serving as a witness, as well as all available details of the incident/complaint: date, time, location, nature of the incident, description of the incident, nature of the investigation, investigatory materials, the disposition of the case, and any subsequent materials related to the execution of any resultant discipline. Responsive materials include all complaints and allegations against any officer, employee, or representative of this policing agency, regardless of whether that complaint or allegation resulted in any investigation or disciplinary action.

Responsive materials also include all records of use of force by officers, including records disclosing the names, badge numbers, and personnel identification of each officer involved and/or serving as a witness, as well as all available details of the incident: date, time, location, nature of the incident, description of the incident, nature of the use of force, subsequent investigatory materials related to the use of force, the disposition of any investigation into the incident, and any subsequent materials related to the use of force.

Please provide materials on a rolling basis, beginning with materials created during the following timeframes:
• January 1, 2010 - June 15, 2020
• January 1, 2000 - January 1, 2010
• January 1, 1990 - January 1, 2000
• January 1, 1980 - January 1, 1990
• January 1, 1970 - January 1, 1980

Pursuant to NYCRR Section 1401.5(c)(1), should any of this request be unclear or lack sufficient description for your office, please provide direction that would enable this requester to request records reasonably described. Please also note that the New York FOIL states: "An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request is voluminous or that locating or reviewing the requested records or providing the requested copies is burdensome because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide copying, programming or other services required to provide the copy...." Please also see FOIL AO 19671, an Advisory Opinion from the Committee on Open Government [https://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f19671.htm].

If your office has questions about this request or would like to discuss it for any reason, please contact this requester via the contact email address provided and feel free to follow up by phone: 617-299-1832. This request is being submitted to each policing agency in New York as part of a collaborative project led by MuckRock and involving multiple other educational and journalistic partners and participants. For this reason, over the lifetime of this request, your agency may interface with individuals not listed on this initial communication.

This request is being made in the public interest by a news organization as part of non-profit (not commercial) journalistic work and research on behalf of the public. 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 and as part of the necessary negotiations for successful processing. As far as it is possible, please fulfill elements of this request 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,

Beryl Lipton

From:

See attached

Craig Westbrook

Chief of Police

City of Fulton Police Department

cwestbrook@fultonpd.com <mailto:cwestbrook@fultonpd.com>

(315)598-4504

From: Beryl Lipton

Hello Chief Westbrook —

Thank you for providing an acknowledgement of this FOIL request. I’ll look forward to hearing from your office again in a few months. Please do let me know if you have any questions for me.

Thank you so much for your time and help.

Best wishes,
Beryl

From: Fulton City Police Department

To Whom it May Concern:

I apologize for the delayed response. Due to staffing issues created in part by the pandemic and the voluminous nature of your request additional time will be required to research and address your foil request. I would estimate that the request can be addressed within the next 18 to 24 months.

Craig Westbrook

Chief of Police

City of Fulton Police Department

cwestbrook@fultonpd.com <mailto:cwestbrook@fultonpd.com>

(315)598-4504

From: Fulton City Police Department

A reply was sent on November 30, 2021, it is included in this thread.

Craig Westbrook

Chief of Police

City of Fulton Police Department

<mailto:cwestbrook@fultonpd.com> cwestbrook@fultonpd.com

(315)598-4504

From: Beryl Lipton

Hello, Ms. Jones —

I received your email responding to a phone call placed to your office by Hayden Kim to follow up on a FOIL request we submitted in June 2020.

I have attached the acknowledgement letter sent by your office in April 2021. I would not like to resubmit this request, as we have been patiently waiting for a response for multiple years. I understand that it might take additional weeks to respond to the request at this point, but I would appreciate knowing when your office anticipates being able to release a first batch of records.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

Best wishes,
Beryl

From: Fulton City Police Department

Hello,
I have forwarded this on to our current Chief. He will be looking into
this request.

Regards,
*Cassandra Jones*
Sr. Account Clerk
City of Fulton Police Department
Phone: 315-598-4504 ext. 3
www.fultonpd.com

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