Kansas police certification 2022-09-19
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| Submitted | Sept. 19, 2022 |
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Communications
From: Paige Maizes
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a public records request made via MuckRock under the The Kansas Open Records Act, seeking records related to law enforcement officer certification in this state.
This request is brought by Big Local News along with a collaboration of news organizations, including ABC News, KQED, MuckRock, the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and other news organizations. Big Local News is a program of Stanford University’s Journalism and Democracy Initiative and helps journalists collect, process and analyze public data.
We are seeking two categories of certification records:
* All certified officers
All law enforcement officers who are actively certified as of the date of this request (or when the request is processed). If your system maintains historical records of previously certified officers who are no longer active, please include them as far back as possible. If correctional officers are certified by your agency, please include them as well.
* Decertified officers
All law enforcement officers who have been decertified through revocations, voluntary surrenders, suspensions or any other actions going back as far as possible. Please include records for decertified correctional officers if available.
Data elements for certified officers:
* Officer unique ID number
* POST or state certification ID number
* Officer’s full name
* Officer’s date of birth or, if not releasable, year of birth or current age
* Officer’s city and/or zip code of residence
* Officer’s last/current department or agency
* Officer’s last/current department or agency start date
* Officer’s last/current position and/or rank at that department or agency
* Officer’s previous departments/agencies (employment history), with start and end dates
* Officer’s positions and/or ranks at previous departments or agencies
* Officer’s original date of certification
* Current status of certification (active, lapsed, expired, suspended, etc.)
* Last action taken on certification
* Date of last action on certification
* Disciplinary actions taken against this officer’s certification
* Dates of disciplinary actions taken against this officer’s certification
* Training history/additional certifications of this officer, if available
Data elements for decertified officers:
* Officer unique ID number
* POST ID number
* Officer’s full name
* Officer’s date of birth or, if not releasable, year of birth or current age
* Officer’s city and/or zip code of residence.
* Officer’s last department/agency, with start and end date
* Officer’s last position and/or rank at that department or agency
* Decertification action taken (revocation, suspension, voluntary surrender, etc.)
* Date decertification action taken
* POST case number, if applicable
* Reason for decertification or similar action
If your certification system contains data elements not listed above, please include them in the response, provided they are releasable under the law. On the other hand, we recognize some of the information we are asking for may not be tracked by your system. If that is the case, we are willing to accept as many of the data elements as your agency maintains. If some records are more readily available, we are happy to receive partial information as soon as possible while the remaining request is processed.
In addition to the data elements listed, we request documentation necessary to understand and interpret the data, including but not limited to record layouts, data dictionaries, code sheets, lookup tables, etc.
Our preference is to receive structured data provided in a machine-readable text file, such as delimited or fixed-width formats. We can also handle a variety of other data formats including SQL databases, Excel workbooks and MS Access. If there are additional formats your agency would prefer to provide, please let us know.
We are seeking this information as a news media organization on a matter of public interest concerning the conduct of government. As such, we ask for a waiver of all fees, if allowed under state law. If fees are necessary to reimburse the agency for actual costs, we agree to pay up to $100. If costs exceed that amount, please let us know before fulfilling the request.
Please send clarifications and questions via electronic communication at any time. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request.
Paige Maizes
Reporter
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
From: Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training
Good Morning,
We received your open records request by email on September 20, 2022. I have attached a list of currently employed and certified law enforcement officers. Please be aware that agencies are not required to provided us with updated rank. Therefore, the ranks listed may be incorrect and should be verified with the employing agency. An “F” indicated full-time certification and a “P” represents part-time certification.
We are able to run a list by year that shows the officers that were hired in the applicable year. I have attached the list for 2021 so that you can see what that looks like. There are some issues with these historical lists by year. Previously, rank changes or leave were recorded as new hiring events. Therefore, if an officer was hired in 2018 and promoted in 2020, you will see a stop date and new hire date even though the officer did not separate from the agency. CPOST was created in its current form in 2006. While we can pull documents prior to that time, there may be issues or inaccuracies with the data. We cannot accurately pull records by year prior to 1986. I do not recommend requesting the yearly lists prior to 2000. Please let me know if you would like the employment histories by year and, if so, which years you are requesting. There will be a fee to provide these records. I do not anticipate that it will exceed $100 but will not know for certain until the records are retrieved. We will not proceed with filling this portion of your request until you affirm you would like the reports and specify the years. Depending on how many years you request, it will take approximately two to four weeks to complete this portion of the request.
You may find a list of available certification actions on our website at KSCPOST<https://www.kscpost.org/disdate.html>. We do not have a report available that lists the reason(s) for the certification action. The redacted orders from 2019 – present are available by clicking on the officer’s name on the report. You may read them to ascertain the “reason” for the action. There are typically multiple grounds alleged in the orders. I am able to provide redacted orders for years prior to 2019, but you will be billed for the attorney time spent on redaction. This will certainly exceed $100. I am not able to provide an estimate for how much time will be spent, as it depends on the order. There are also orders that are stored off-site and you would be responsible for mileage and staff time spent to retrieve those orders. Please specify if you would like additional redacted certification orders. We will not proceed with pulling and redacting orders unless/until you affirm you would like the orders and specify which orders you would like. If you ask for additional orders, it will take between three weeks and three months to complete this portion of the request. KS CPOST does not have jurisdiction over correctional officers.
Regarding an officer’s individual employment history, we are unable to fill this portion of your request. Employment histories must be individually run. This request is unduly burdensome for our small agency. We estimate running the histories would cost well in excess of $10,000 and take over eighteen months to complete. Much of the data would be obsolete by the time the work was finished.
Regarding an officer’s date of birth, including year of birth, this information is confidential pursuant to K.S.A. 74-5611a. We do not have residential addresses on the majority of officers. For those that we do, this information is confidential under the same section.
Please confirm if you are requesting additional records, for which you will be billed. If we do not receive a response by October 3, 2022, we will consider this matter closed within our office.
Sincerely,
Michelle R. Meier
Commission Counsel
Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training
1999 N. Amidon, Ste. 350
Wichita, KS 67203-2180
Ph. 316-832-9906
Fax 316-832-9679
mmeier@kscpost.org<mailto:mmeier@kscpost.org>
CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVILEGE NOTICE
This email message including attachments, if any, is intended for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use or disclosure is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy the original message, including all copies.
From: Paige Maizes
Dear Ms. Meier,
I apologize for the delay. I made a public records request 2022-09-19 via MuckRock under the The Kansas Open Records Act, seeking records related to law enforcement officer certification in this state.
Thank you for attaching the lists of 2021 employment history and active officers by 9-21-22.
Regarding the officer employment history of the past 10 years, from 2010 to 2022, can you please provide an invoice estimate as soon as possible.
Please send clarifications and questions via electronic communication at any time. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request.
Paige Maizes
Reporter
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
From: Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training
You will find the cost statement for the records you have requested attached. Please be aware that we are willing to provide responsive records by email. However, we will not click links embedded in emails.
We will email the responsive records upon receipt of payment.
Sincerely,
Michelle R. Meier
Commission Counsel
Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training
1999 N. Amidon, Ste. 350
Wichita, KS 67203-2180
Ph. 316-832-9906
Fax 316-832-9679
mmeier@kscpost.org<mailto:mmeier@kscpost.org>
CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVILEGE NOTICE: This email message including attachments, if any, is intended for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use or disclosure is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy the original message, including all copies.
From: Justin Mayo
To Whom It May Concern:
Please find enclosed a check for $20.74 to satisfy the fee associated with the attached public records request.
Thank you.
KSCPOST
Michelle R. Meier
Ste. 350
1999 N. Amidon
Wichita, KS 67203
From: Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training
We received your payment by check, in the amount of $20.74, by mail on January 17, 2023. The records that were retrieved at the time of your request are attached. We now consider this matter closed within our office.
Sincerely,
Michelle R. Meier
Commission Counsel
Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training
1999 N. Amidon, Ste. 350
Wichita, KS 67203-2180
Ph. 316-832-9906
Fax 316-832-9679
mmeier@kscpost.org<mailto:mmeier@kscpost.org>
CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVILEGE NOTICE: This email message including attachments, if any, is intended for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use or disclosure is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy the original message, including all copies.
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EmploymentHistory 2022
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EmploymentHistory 2021
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EmploymentHistory 2020
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EmploymentHistory 2019
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EmploymentHistory 2018
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EmploymentHistory 2017
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EmploymentHistory 2016
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EmploymentHistory 2015
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EmploymentHistory 2014
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EmploymentHistory 2013
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From:
Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate your help.
Justin Mayo
Data Journalist / Big Local News
Stanford University
206-854-8234
jamayo@stanford.edu<mailto:jamayo@stanford.edu>
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