NH police budget and employment data (Merrimack County) (Hooksett Police Department)
| Multi Request | NH police budget and employment data (Merrimack County) |
| Submitted | June 24, 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 Concord Monitor through 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 603-224-5301 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,
Cassidy Jensen, The Concord Monitor
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 June 24, 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:
Hello,
I wanted to reach out in a preliminary way and acknowledge that the Town of Hooksett has received your organization's request regarding various records related to the Hooksett Police Department.
Staff are still in the process of assessing what records are applicable and their exact disposition. We shall try to provide a deeper initial estimate by the end of next week for at least a majority of the portions covered.
In the meantime, I can initially direct you to a source of information that would satisfy the majority of the "Budget and Funding Data" information requested:
Hooksett's annual town reports since 2008 can be found online at www.hooksett.org<http://www.hooksett.org> (www.hooksett.org<http://www.hooksett.org> -> https://www.hooksett.org/administrator/pages/town-reports). Itemized police budgets can be found under the department heading line by line including amount and what lines are for.
Prior to 2008, Town Reports are accessible through the requested period with no gaps I can see through the UNH Scholars Repository: https://scholars.unh.edu/hooksett_nh_reports/
I believe for that same period we should have copies for physical inspection on site as well. We shall reach out further about fulfilling the request.
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
35 Main Street
Hooksett NH 03106
603 - 485 - 8472 office
603-485-2439 - fax
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
www.hooksett.org<http://www.hooksett.org>
From: Hooksett Police Department
Hello,
I wanted to reach out in a preliminary way and acknowledge that the Town of Hooksett has received your organization’s request regarding various records related to the Hooksett Police Department.
Staff are still in the process of assessing what records are applicable and their exact disposition. We shall try to provide a deeper initial estimate by the end of next week for at least a majority of the portions covered.
In the meantime, I can initially direct you to a source of information that would satisfy the majority of the “Budget and Funding Data” information requested:
Hooksett’s annual town reports since 2008 can be found online at www.hooksett.org (www.hooksett.org -> https://www.hooksett.org/administrator/pages/town-reports). Itemized police budgets can be found under the department heading line by line including amount and what lines are for.
Prior to 2008, Town Reports are accessible through the requested period with no gaps I can see through the UNH Scholars Repository: https://scholars.unh.edu/hooksett_nh_reports/
I believe for that same period we should have copies for physical inspection on site as well. We shall reach out further about fulfilling the request.
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
35 Main Street
Hooksett NH 03106
603 – 485 – 8472 office
603-485-2439 - fax
ngermain@hooksett.org
www.hooksett.org
From:
Hello,
I wanted to reach out in a preliminary way and acknowledge that the Town of Hooksett has received your organization's request regarding various records related to the Hooksett Police Department.
Staff are still in the process of assessing what records are applicable and their exact disposition. We shall try to provide a deeper initial estimate by the end of next week for at least a majority of the portions covered.
In the meantime, I can initially direct you to a source of information that would satisfy the majority of the "Budget and Funding Data" information requested:
Hooksett's annual town reports since 2008 can be found online at www.hooksett.org<http://www.hooksett.org> (www.hooksett.org<http://www.hooksett.org> -> https://www.hooksett.org/administrator/pages/town-reports). Itemized police budgets can be found under the department heading line by line including amount and what lines are for.
Prior to 2008, Town Reports are accessible through the requested period with no gaps I can see through the UNH Scholars Repository: https://scholars.unh.edu/hooksett_nh_reports/
I believe for that same period we should have copies for physical inspection on site as well. We shall reach out further about fulfilling the request.
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
35 Main Street
Hooksett NH 03106
603 - 485 - 8472 office
603-485-2439 - fax
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
www.hooksett.org<http://www.hooksett.org>
From: Hooksett Police Department
Hello,
Tried to respond via the website listed directly, but I can't see the message attempted so I'll reiterate through here as a backup.
________________________________
We have an estimate on when we'll be able to provide additional records related to the request. Material specifically applies to the requested Hooksett Police Department employment demographic data for the period of approximately Spring 2013 to December 2020. This should be available for inspection or other disclosure by the end of the day Monday, July 26th. As I understand, this batch will be hardcopy records available for inspection on site or copying at the town's production cost of $0.50 per page - if mailing the material is desired, we may have to discuss mailing costs. Please be advised that some of the records may be redacted to protect confidential information or other details that are not disclosable to the public. If it turns out records are available earlier than expected or in a digital form, we'll also let you know.
We're still in the process of assessing whether the town has other records that may apply to other areas of the request. Delay is probably attributable to the fact that the Town of Hooksett previously had a Police Commission and various record retention policies and methodologies changed when it was dissolved. When we have an updated assessment on these other parts of the request, we'll reach out immediately.
With respect,
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
Administration Department
Office: 603-485-8472x1
Fax: 603-485-2439
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
From: Hooksett Police Department
Good morning,
The Town of Hooksett has an update on your records request.
The previously mentioned Police Department employment demographic data for the period of approximately Spring 2013 to December 2020 is ready sooner than anticipated. It consists of 196 pages. We have copies available on site at 35 Main Street in Hooksett for inspection. Alternatively, I can probably digitize them and send them over to you folks with no delay after receiving the copying production cost fee for this portion of the request - $98. We'd still have to assess said fee whether you take possession of the copies physically or digitally due to the fact that these particular records had to be copied to have confidential or otherwise non-disclosable information redacted.
Similarly, I have a small update on the "BUDGET and FUNDING DATA" portion of the request. Our Finance Department has potentially hundreds of pages that should be relatively comprehensive related to Police Department grants received during the requested period. These are available for inspection on site. Alternatively, we could probably digitize the cover sheets of those ones related to the Police Department at no charge due to copying being unnecessary. I expect we could do that by the end of next week - main issue is assigning staff time to go through their location and sort out the police documents which would take an estimated 2 or 3 hours.
Copying fees can be paid via cash or check to the Town of Hooksett - please let us know what your wishes are when ready. I think we should be able to provide a final assessment on anything else by next Thursday or Friday.
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
Administration Department
Office: 603-485-8472x1
Fax: 603-485-2439
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
From: Hooksett Police Department
Good morning,
The Town of Hooksett has completed its internal assessment for all the records related to this request. Please see below for a review by component. The town will need payment and/or clarification on method of disclosure requested before staff or other personnel can fully provide access.
BUDGET and FUNDING DATA - Records sufficient to show funding for municipal law enforcement offices and activities for the years 2000 through 2020.
-Published Town Reports should contain all the detail information related to Police Department Budgets for the Town of Hooksett. Town reports are available digitally back to 2008 on https://www.hooksett.org/administrator/pages/town-reports and for that period and beyond via https://scholars.unh.edu/hooksett_nh_reports/. Budget information can be found under terms like "Police Department" or "Police Commission" depending on the year. We can also probably provide original run physical booklets of many of the reports for inspection or even free pickup, but please be advised that the town is probably running out of some of the older reports and they're de facto turning into artifacts that can't be parted with. I can probably figure out a way to get you the digital files of all the reports if that's specifically needed versus just the links, but I expect it might take some time to schedule.
* funds for capital expenditures
-See above section on town reports.
* grants
As previously stated, out Finance Department has a collection of grants received for or by the Hooksett Police Department for the applicable period. Cover sheets themselves should amount to a few dozen pages, while the full documentation of all the grants could be more than hundreds of pages. We can either make copies of all the documents rapidly or digitize the cover sheets that detail the main points of each grant. Digital records in question would be free as no physical copies would be required as would be physical inspection on site. Physical copies would be the production cost of $.50 per page of whatever's ultimately desired.
* donations
Town doesn't have records that specifically summarize donations as those details go undifferentiated in municipal financial records and documents, but this information can be found trailed through minutes. During the period in question, donations were either accepted by Town Council (2013-present) or by the Hooksett Police Commission (2000-2013). The Town Clerk's office has records for all Town Council and Police Commission minutes physically available for inspection and copying (.50 per page). The Town website -does- have a digital archive of minutes accessible by any user at any time, but there are some caveats:
-"recent" town council minutes from 2016 to the present are available here: https://www.hooksett.org/node/39/minutes
-Older Town Council Minutes back to 2001 are archived here: https://cmsarchive.civicplus.com/Hooksett%20NH/default.htm
-Police Commission Minutes 2008-2013 are archived here: https://cmsarchive.civicplus.com/Hooksett%20NH/default.htm - These are the only digitized police commission minutes available online, actual physical minutes with the town clerk go back to 1978.
HIRING and EMPLOYMENT DATA - Records sufficient to show the following data regarding police department employment for the years 2000 through 2020.
The records for the period Spring 2013 to December 2020 appear to be what the town has related to this portion of the request. As a refresher, it its around 196 pages of documents. These can be: 1.) inspected on site ; 2). Dispersed via mail 3); Dispersed digitally. Cost for taking possession of copies would be the production cost of $98.00 previously quoted - as a reminder, we must still charge the production cost for digital access or physical copies in this case due to the fact physical copies had to be made for redaction.
________________________________
When ready, please reach out - I'll try to be prompt.
With respect,
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
Administration Department
Office: 603-485-8472x1
Fax: 603-485-2439
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
From: Granite State News Collaborative
Hi Nicholas,
My apologies for the duplicate requests - I'm not sure how that happened. Thank you so much for this thorough response. It would be great if you could send digital records of the grants. Just to double check, there is no cost associated with inspecting the hiring and employment documents in person, correct?
Thanks so much,
Best,
Cassidy Jensen
From: Hooksett Police Department
Good morning,
Just the inspection is freely allowable under current town procedure – just give us a headsup of what you’d like to look over and when.
I’ll see about the grant details today hopefully-
From: Hooksett Police Department
Good evening,
Turns out our key Finance Department personnel this week and next are alternating vacations so going through the grant archive has fallen to me.
Apologies: Although it’s only four or five banker boxes, the different grants aren’t differentiated and their cover sheets aren’t uniform. I only started this afternoon before Hooksett’s Council meeting.
I will try to send you all or the majority of the key grant details I find by the end of the day tomorrow barring disaster.
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
Administration Department
Office: 603-485-8472x1
Fax: 603-485-2439
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
From: Hooksett Police Department
Hello,
See attached.
There are still files to go through, but they appear to be light on things relevant to the Police.
I may be able to finish by noon tomorrow – will advise if that isn’t possible.
Nicholas P. Germain, MPA
Project Coordinator
Town of Hooksett
Administration Department
Office: 603-485-8472x1
Fax: 603-485-2439
ngermain@hooksett.org<mailto:ngermain@hooksett.org>
There are too many files to display on this communication. See all files
From: Hooksett Police Department
Round 2
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