Alerts (Houston Police Department)

Dear Dhruv Mehrotra:
Thank you for your interest in public records of Houston Police Department. Your request has been received and is being processed in accordance with Chapter 552 of Texas Government Code, the Public Information Act. Your request was received in this office on 10/30/2023 and given the reference number P062156-103023 for tracking purposes. Records Requested: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

- Any emails, memos, or notification reports sent to the company SoundThinking (formerly shotspotter). These are reports where personnel have reached out to Shotspotter for support, because the system failed to detect a shooting or misclassified an incident. According to ShotSpotter, their best practices include steps to ensure that if police officers conclude the ShotSpotter alert was indeed a “false positive,” they report that the company to "keep track and take remedial steps to minimize false positives in the future". I am looking for any such feedback given to ShotSpotter.

- Any emails between department staff with the words "false positive" and "Shotspotter" or "shot spotter" or "sound thinking". Responsive records should be from 2018 until the date this request is processed.

- Copies of all SoundThinking (Shotspotter) responses to aforementioned notification reports, Responsive records should be from 2018 until the date this request is processed.

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, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Dhruv Mehrotra

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Your request will be forwarded to the relevant Houston Police Department department(s) to locate the information you seek and to determine the volume and any costs associated with satisfying your request. You will be contacted about the availability and/or provided with copies of the records in question. PLEASE NOTE: The Chapter 552 of Texas Government Code, the Public Information Act does not require a governmental body to create new information, to do legal research, or to answer questions.

You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below and you'll receive an email when your request has been completed. Again, thank you for using the Houston Public Information Request Center.
Houston Police Department

--- Please respond above this line ---

Good morning.
In order to facilitate your request as efficiently as possible and with as low a cost as possible, we will need you to provide the names of HPD employees you would like us to search.
Searching 6 years of emails for approx. 6500-7000 emails will cost in the thousands and take a minimum of 220 business days to complete. This is an estimate for a 3 month search: Below is the itemized list of : estimated charges CPU Charge: 180 minutes @ $10 per cpu minute                                         $1800.00 Labor: 220 hours @ $15 per hour                                                                   $3300.00 Overhead: $3300.00 x 20%                                                                            $  660.00 DVD: $3.00 each                                                                                                 TBD Postage _   TBD Estimated Total                                                                                               $5760.00 Deposit                                                                                                            $2880.00 Please let me know how we can facilitate your request more manageably. Thank you, Open Records Unit