Kansas Police Reciprocal Certifications 2023-5-9
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | May 9, 2023 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Sam Stecklow
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a public records request made via MuckRock under 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 Invisible Institute 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 request any spreadsheets, logs, data, or other similar documents maintained by KS POST sufficient to show the following information regarding law enforcement officers who receive reciprocal certifications in Kansas due to their previous certification in other states. Specifically, please provide as many of the following data points as are maintained:
- Unique ID
- Name
- Previous state that the officer was previously certified by
- Date of Kansas certification
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.
Sam Stecklow
Invisible Institute
From: Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training
Mr. Stecklow,
We received your open records request by email on May 9, 2023. Please contact me to discuss your request. We will not be able to proceed with fulfillment without further clarification.
We are able to provide the information you have requested through our online central registry, with the exception of the state in which the officer was previously certified. If an officer was previously in another state and seeks certification in Kansas, the previous state of certification is typically reflected on the Demographic form that is submitted to us upon hire. However, the state is not entered in the registry. Rather, it is entered as either “yes” or “no” as to whether the individual was trained outside of Kansas. That information is then transmitted to the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Academy, where the individual’s transcripts are evaluated to determine the level of training required to obtain Kansas certification. Additionally, we are only able to electronically pull this information for officers who obtained reciprocity certification after April 3, 2017 (the origination of our current database). You have not provided a date parameter on your request, so I am uncertain about how much historical data you are seeking.
If you would like to request the information after April 3, 2017, which will only reflect officers that were certified through reciprocity (and not the previous state), I estimate that it will cost approximately $150 and take two to four weeks to complete. If you are requesting state information or information on officers who were certified prior to April 2017, it would require staff to hand-pull Demographic forms, some of which are located approximately 40 miles away. This request, particularly without date parameters, would be unduly burdensome and extremely costly. I am unable to give an estimate on the cost or amount of time that request would take without date parameters.
Please contact me to discuss how you would like to proceed. No work will be completed on your request until we obtain clarification. You may reach me on my direct line at 316-358-7642. If I do not hear from you by June 1, 2023, 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: Sam Stecklow
Thanks Michelle. I'll discuss internally and get back to you.
From: Sam Stecklow
Hi Michelle
Given that we would not be receiving state of origin, the cost-benefit doesn't work out for us right now. We will refile if that changes.
Thanks
Sam
From: Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training
Thank you for this communication. I have notated that your open records request of May 9, 2023 has been withdrawn.
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<mailto:mmeier@kscpost.org%3cmailto: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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~WRD0000