Police department misconduct allegations and disciplinary proceedings
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | June 18, 2020 |
| Est. Completion | Dec. 18, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Beryl Lipton
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:
All materials and records describing and sufficient to show/disclose all allegations of misconduct made and all disciplinary proceedings taken against any officer, employee, or representative of this policing agency.
As described in the New York Freedom of Information Law, a record is "any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever including, but not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books, manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms, computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes." Records kept in a digital or electronic form are also records, would be responsive to this request, and should be provided.
These records are typically required to be retained under the New York State Records Retention and Disposition Schedule MU-1 (http://www.archives.nysed.gov/records/retention_mu-1), including, but not limited to, item no. 365, which includes: "Investigative records and disciplinary proceedings, including but not limited to statement of charge, transcript of hearing, notice of decision, letter of termination or resignation, letter of reinstatement, record of appeal procedure, and correspondence." While materials under that schedule have a set retention of 3 years after the final decision rendered, this request and materials responsive to it include *all* records held in the possession of any office or individual employed or formerly employed by this policing agency, including those kept off-site, in digital form, and in personnel files.
Please note that any failure to provide all potentially-responsive materials and/or the destruction of materials potentially responsive to this request would be a violation of the spirit of the New York Freedom of Information Law, as well as unlawful under the New York FOIL and the terms of the attached litigation hold notice.
Materials responsive to this request include — but are not limited to — all complaints, reports, records of discipline and penalties, aggregate collections of complaint and disciplinary materials (spreadsheets, databases), investigatory materials, relevant related correspondence, photographs, video, other related evidence, proof of discipline or fulfillment of penalties, and all personnel materials (including those used in promotion, contract, and other employment negotiations and considerations) that reference or utilize misconduct allegations or disciplinary materials of any sort.
Materials responsive to this request include all complaints— internal, external, and civilian — and include records disclosing the names, badge numbers, and personnel identification of each officer involved and/or serving as a witness, as well as all available details of the incident/complaint: date, time, location, nature of the incident, description of the incident, nature of the investigation, investigatory materials, the disposition of the case, and any subsequent materials related to the execution of any resultant discipline. Responsive materials include all complaints and allegations against any officer, employee, or representative of this policing agency, regardless of whether that complaint or allegation resulted in any investigation or disciplinary action.
Responsive materials also include all records of use of force by officers, including records disclosing the names, badge numbers, and personnel identification of each officer involved and/or serving as a witness, as well as all available details of the incident: date, time, location, nature of the incident, description of the incident, nature of the use of force, subsequent investigatory materials related to the use of force, the disposition of any investigation into the incident, and any subsequent materials related to the use of force.
Please provide materials on a rolling basis, beginning with materials created during the following timeframes:
• January 1, 2010 - June 15, 2020
• January 1, 2000 - January 1, 2010
• January 1, 1990 - January 1, 2000
• January 1, 1980 - January 1, 1990
• January 1, 1970 - January 1, 1980
Pursuant to NYCRR Section 1401.5(c)(1), should any of this request be unclear or lack sufficient description for your office, please provide direction that would enable this requester to request records reasonably described. Please also note that the New York FOIL states: "An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request is voluminous or that locating or reviewing the requested records or providing the requested copies is burdensome because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide copying, programming or other services required to provide the copy...." Please also see FOIL AO 19671, an Advisory Opinion from the Committee on Open Government [https://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f19671.htm].
If your office has questions about this request or would like to discuss it for any reason, please contact this requester via the contact email address provided and feel free to follow up by phone: 617-299-1832. This request is being submitted to each policing agency in New York as part of a collaborative project led by MuckRock and involving multiple other educational and journalistic partners and participants. For this reason, over the lifetime of this request, your agency may interface with individuals not listed on this initial communication.
This request is being made in the public interest by a news organization as part of non-profit (not commercial) journalistic work and research on behalf of the public. 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 and as part of the necessary negotiations for successful processing. As far as it is possible, please fulfill elements of this request 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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Beryl Lipton
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
An interim response, stating the request is being processed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. 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: Lancaster Town Police Department
Good morning,
A response was sent to you previously via US Postal Service. We are working on your request and will contact you when we have completed the review of records related to your request.
Regards,
William J. Karn, Jr.
Chief of Police
Lancaster Police Department
525 Pavement Road
Lancaster, NY 14086
Desk: (716) 683-2800 x100
Dispatch: (716) 683-2800
wkarn@police.lancasterny.gov<mailto:wkarn@police.lancasterny.gov>
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. 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: Lancaster Town Police Department
An interim response, stating the request is being processed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. 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 New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. 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: Lancaster Town Police Department
Dear Sir/Madam,
A second response was sent out to you on July 23, 2020, via USPS. If you did not receive this response, please let me know and we can resend it.
William J. Karn, Jr.
Chief of Police
Lancaster Police Department
525 Pavement Road
Lancaster, NY 14086
Desk: (716) 683-2800 x100
Dispatch: (716) 683-2800
wkarn@police.lancasterny.gov<mailto:wkarn@police.lancasterny.gov>
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
A fix is required to perfect the request.
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
A fix is required to perfect the request.
From: Beryl Lipton
Hello Chief Karn,
Thank you so much for your message. I've noted that your office will need until at least September 20 to respond to this request, and I'll look forward to hearing from you in a few weeks.
All the best,
Beryl
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
An interim response, stating the request is being processed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Sept. 21, 2020. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
To Whom It May Concern,
An updated response was sent to you via USPS on September 18, 2020. If you did not receive this response, please let me know and we can resend it.
William J. Karn, Jr.
Chief of Police
Lancaster Police Department
525 Pavement Road
Lancaster, NY 14086
Desk: (716) 683-2800 x100
Dispatch: (716) 683-2800
wkarn@police.lancasterny.gov<mailto:wkarn@police.lancasterny.gov>
From: Beryl Lipton
Hello Chief Karn,
Thank you so much for your letter. I see that we'll be able to expect a response in December. Please let me know if we can help is some way before then and I'll look forward to hearing from you in the meanwhile.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. You previously indicated that it would be completed on Dec. 18, 2020. I wanted to let you know that I am still interested in the following documents, and to see if that date was still accurate.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
An interim response, stating the request is being processed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Dec. 18, 2020. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
To Whom It May Concern,
A response from our Police Department was sent via USPS on December 15, 2020.
Regards,
William J. Karn, Jr.
Chief of Police
Lancaster Police Department
525 Pavement Road
Lancaster, NY 14086
Desk: (716) 683-2800 x100
Dispatch: (716) 683-2800
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
A letter stating the requester must agree to or prepay assessed or estimated fees in order for the agency to continue processing the request.
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
A letter stating the requester must agree to or prepay assessed or estimated fees in order for the agency to continue processing the request.
From: Beryl Lipton
Hello, Chief Karn —
I apologize for not having provided payment at the time it was requested, and I hope you've been well since we last exchanged messages.
We are still very interested in these records, and I'm wondering whether you could please confirm that the fees associated with all of the responsive materials remains at $73.95.
Thank you very much for your time and help.
Best wishes,
Beryl
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
Dear Beryl Lipton,
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
An interim response, stating the request is being processed.
From: Lancaster Town Police Department
A letter stating the requester must agree to or prepay assessed or estimated fees in order for the agency to continue processing the request.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 18, 2020. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Dec. 18, 2020. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
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