NH police budget and employment data (Rockingham County) (Hampton Police Department)
| Multi Request | NH police budget and employment data (Rockingham County) |
| Submitted | Sept. 8, 2021 |
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Communications
From: Granite State News Collaborative
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New Hampshire Right to Know Law, I respectfully request the following records related to this municipality's police department hiring, employment, and funding for the budget years 2000 through 2020:
BUDGET and FUNDING DATA - Records sufficient to show funding for municipal law enforcement offices and activities for the years 2000 through 2020.
If possible, please provide the itemized budget allocated for public safety and police department activities for each year, as well as records sufficient to show any additional funding received through other means, including but not limited to:
• funds for capital expenditures
• grants
• donations
HIRING and EMPLOYMENT DATA - Records sufficient to show the following data regarding police department employment for the years 2000 through 2020.
• The number of employed law enforcement officers (as defined by RSA 105-D:1). Please provide the date on which the provided numbers were accurate.
• Annual demographic information (age, race, gender) of law enforcement officers employed by this municipality
• Annual demographic information (age, race, gender) of any individual employed in a position of leadership within this municipality’s public safety or law enforcement department
If any of the requested information is available in aggregate form, provision of this aggregate information by year would likely satisfy this request. If there are any known caveats involved with the data and information your office is able to provide, I would really appreciate it if you could share them with me.
*Please note* that if any of the requested information is held by another office or agency, direction to the appropriate office would be greatly appreciated.
This request is being made on behalf of the statewide nonprofit Granite State News Collaborative. This request is not being made for commercial purposes. It is being made as part of a journalistic data collection effort to benefit news organizations and the public good throughout the State of New Hampshire.
If your office anticipates that fees associated with the processing of this request, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request be filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Please call 617-500-7123 with any questions about this request. If your call is not answered, please leave a message and your call will be returned as soon as possible.
I look forward to receiving your response to this request within five business days, as required by law.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I really appreciate your time and help.
Sincerely,
Beryl Lipton
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New Hampshire Right to Know Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 8, 2021. 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: Hampton Police Department
Sear Ms. Lipton:
Receipt of your attached Right to Know Law request dated September 9, 2021 and addressed to the Hampton Police Department, is hereby acknowledged. Given the long 20 year time frame of the records you are seeking and the extensiveness of those records, I anticipate that it will take an additional 30 days to produce the records for your inspection that you are seeking.
In Hampton, responses to document requests and the charges therefor are governed by the Board of Selectmen's Right to Know Policy, a copy of which is attached hereto. Until the produced records are designated by you for copying, it is not possible to inform you of what the costs of copying will be beyond the per page rates in the Right to Know Policy.
I am assuming that the reference in your third bullet to the municipality's "public safety" department does not extend beyond the Hampton Police Department. Please advise if otherwise.
This response does not waive any exemption to disclosure that may be determined to apply when potentially responsive documents are being compiled.
Thank you,
Mark S. Gearreald, Esq.
Hampton Town Attorney
100 Winnacunnet Road
Hampton, NH 03842
(603)929-5816
FAX: (603)758-1031
This communication is confidential, subject to the attorney-client or work product privileges, and intended only for the addressee(s). If received in error, please delete without reading, destroy all copies and contact the sender immediately at 603-929-5816. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of the attorney-client or any other privilege.
________________________________
From: Granite State News Collaborative
Hello, Mr. Gearreald —
Thank you so much for this message. I appreciate that it will take a bit more time to process this request, and I'll look forward to hearing from your office again.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New Hampshire Right to Know Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 8, 2021. You previously indicated that it would be completed on Oct. 25, 2021. I wanted to let you know that I am still interested in the following documents, and to see if that date was still accurate.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Hampton Police Department
Dear Ms. Lipton: Thank you for this indication of continued interest in getting answers to your Request. If the point arrives where you no longer have this interest, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know.
The timing of your request corresponds with budget time in the Town of Hampton such that the personnel resources needing to be drawn upon to compile the existing documents that answer your request are spread a little thin. I had estimated in my e-mail to you of September 15 that it would likely take an additional 30 days to respond. In fact, additional time may be needed and I will let you know about this as soon as I know.
Again, I am assuming that your reference in your third bullet to the municipality's "public safety" department does not extend beyond the Hampton Police Department.
Thank you again,
Mark S. Gearreald, Esq.
Hampton Town Attorney
100 Winnacunnet Road
Hampton, NH 03842
(603)929-5816
FAX: (603)758-1031
This communication is confidential, subject to the attorney-client or work product privileges, and intended only for the addressee(s). If received in error, please delete without reading, destroy all copies and contact the sender immediately at 603-929-5816. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of the attorney-client or any other privilege.
From: Hampton Police Department
Dear Ms. Lipton:
Thank you for your patience in awaiting this substantive response.
Under New Hampshire's Right to Know Law, the municipality's obligation in responding to document requests is to produce for inspection and copying, existing, non-exempt documents. Responding to questions in interrogatory format do not come within the purview of this obligation beyond producing for inspection existing documents that contain the answers.
With this in mind, our responses to your items requested are as follows:
As to the financial information you have requested from 2000 through 2020, the existing documents that would contain this information appear in the Annual Town Reports, which contain detailed financials for a given year from our Finance Department, as well as the available auditors from the Town's outside auditors. For instance, in the 2020 Annual Report, the Financials of the Finance Department appear beginning on page 62, and the outside auditor's report appears on page 93.
While the Town Reports could be produced here at the Town Office for your inspection and copied at a cost of 50 cents per page, these Reports can be accessed in full either on the Town of Hampton's website (for the years 2006 through 2019) at the following link:
Town website
https://www.hamptonnh.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=44&Type=&ADID=
or for years going back before 2006, these Reports can be accessed in full on the Hampton public library website at the following link:
Library link
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/town/reports/index.htm
These reports for the year 2000 through 2020 also contain an alphabetical listing of every Town employee by name and Department, which gives you the ability to count the numbers you are requesting in interrogatory form as to the first bullet under "Hiring and Employment Data." In the 2020 Annual Report, for instance, this listing begins on page 22.
As to your second and third bullets under "Hiring and Employment Data," it is my understanding that no documents exist that contain this demographic information for the Hampton Police Department.
Thank you,
Mark S. Gearreald, Esq.
Hampton Town Attorney
100 Winnacunnet Road
Hampton, NH 03842
(603)929-5816
FAX: (603)758-1031
This communication is confidential, subject to the attorney-client or work product privileges, and intended only for the addressee(s). If received in error, please delete without reading, destroy all copies and contact the sender immediately at 603-929-5816. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of the attorney-client or any other privilege.
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