Ring partnership, Houston
| Submitted | Aug. 30, 2019 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Caroline Haskins
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Public reports state that this police department has partnered with Ring, Amazon’s home security company. (https://blog.ring.com/2019/08/28/working-together-for-safer-neighborhoods-introducing-the-neighbors-active-law-enforcement-map/) These partnerships involve an exchange: Law enforcement gets access to Ring’s “Law Enforcement Neighborhoods Portal.” The Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal is a way that police can request Ring camera footage from people that use Neighbors, Ring has a "neighborhood watch" app.
Therefore, I hereby request the following records:
1) All instructional materials, presentations and presentation materials (including recorded video and audio, PowerPoint files, prepared remarks, and slides formats), and other guidance on the use of Ring devices and/or the Neighbors app. This includes A) any notes taken during meetings that discussed the use of Ring devices and/or the Neighbors app, B) any explanations (whether internally or externally generated) of how Ring devices and/or the Neighbors app work, and C) any other document that has been used to help explain the use of Ring devices and/or the Neighbors app to any party, including internal documentation, public relations materials, and executive summaries.
2) A copy of any privacy impact assessments, use policies, standard operating procedures, data retention policies, legal opinions, warranties, non-disclosure agreements, contracts, liability waivers, insurance agreements, Requests for Proposals, Responses to Requests for Proposal, Memorandums of Understanding, Letters of Interest, usage policies, or informal agreements between the police department and Ring.
3) A copy of any funding opportunity announcements, grant applications and grantor status/progress reports, reports to legislative bodies, annual reports that mention Ring or the Neighbors app, as well as audit records, including but not limited to security audits of the software, misuse reports, and reports to oversight bodies.
4) Any digital communications including but not limited to emails and text messages) as well as documents, (including but not limited to PDF, word processing, excel, and slide documents) that mention Ring or the Neighbors app.
5) Any digital communications (including but not limited to emails and text messages) with Ring representatives.
Please try to include any other miscellaneous documents that facilitate this police department's relationship with Ring that don't neatly fall neatly into the above categories.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. It will be used in the course of reporting for Motherboard, VICE’s science and technology website (www.motherboard.vice.com).
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,
Caroline Haskins
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Texas Public Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 30, 2019. 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 Texas Public Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 30, 2019. 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 Texas Public Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 30, 2019. 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 Texas Public Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 30, 2019. 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 Texas Public Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 30, 2019. 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: Houston Police Department
Dear Caroline Haskins,
Please be aware that we were under impression that it was duplicate request. We had received a request from MuckRock News, which was requested by Luis Matsakis, requesting the same information regarding Amazon and Ring. On August 23, 2019, we had emailed Mr. Matsakis an estimate letter, and on September 10, 2019, he requested for the fees to be waived--we do not waive any fees. So, your request and Mr. Matsakis request were closed since the same information was requested.
Therefore you will need to resubmit a new request for the any emails to be searched. In your request, please be aware that we do not have the technical ability to globally search all HPD employee email accounts. You will need to specify the following:
- Please provide us with a list of HPD employees whose emails you wish us to search
- Please provide us with a key word or list of key words you wish us to search for
- Please provide us with a date range
Furthermore, to avoid any further delays with your new request (if you submit a new request), some of the emails may discuss information that is confidential as a matter of law, open/active criminal investigations, investigations which did not result in conviction/deferred adjudication, attorney-client communications, and/or law enforcement tactics, to include documents from other law enforcement agencies.
Do you agree to allow us to withhold these types of messages? (See 552.101, 552.103, 552.107, and 552.108 of the Texas Government Code, to include documents from other law enforcement agencies)? Please note that if you do not agree to allow us to withhold these messages, and any of the messages contain this type of information, we will need to seek a ruling from the Texas Attorney General in order to withhold such messages. This process will add up to approximately 60 business days to the processing time of your request. If you agree to allow us to withhold these types of messages, we will not need to seek the ruling from the AG to withhold them.
Sincerely,
Thank you,
Joe Zapata
HPD Open Records Unit
713-308-3264
-
~WRD000
From: Houston Police Department
Dear Caroline Haskins,
Please be aware that we were under impression that it was duplicate request. We had received a request from MuckRock News, which was requested by Luis Matsakis, requesting the same information regarding Amazon and Ring. On August 23, 2019, we had emailed Mr. Matsakis an estimate letter, and on September 10, 2019, he requested for the fees to be waived--we do not waive any fees. So, your request and Mr. Matsakis request were closed since the same information was requested.
Therefore you will need to resubmit a new request for the any emails to be searched. In your request, please be aware that we do not have the technical ability to globally search all HPD employee email accounts. You will need to specify the following:
- Please provide us with a list of HPD employees whose emails you wish us to search
- Please provide us with a key word or list of key words you wish us to search for
- Please provide us with a date range
Furthermore, to avoid any further delays with your new request (if you submit a new request), some of the emails may discuss information that is confidential as a matter of law, open/active criminal investigations, investigations which did not result in conviction/deferred adjudication, attorney-client communications, and/or law enforcement tactics, to include documents from other law enforcement agencies.
Do you agree to allow us to withhold these types of messages? (See 552.101, 552.103, 552.107, and 552.108 of the Texas Government Code, to include documents from other law enforcement agencies)? Please note that if you do not agree to allow us to withhold these messages, and any of the messages contain this type of information, we will need to seek a ruling from the Texas Attorney General in order to withhold such messages. This process will add up to approximately 60 business days to the processing time of your request. If you agree to allow us to withhold these types of messages, we will not need to seek the ruling from the AG to withhold them.
Sincerely,
Thank you,
Joe Zapata
HPD Open Records Unit
713-308-3264
-
~WRD137