Little Rock, AK PD Citizen Complaints

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), Ark. Code Ann. § § 25-19-101 to 25-19-109, I hereby request the following records:

To Whom It May Concern:

We are Economics Professors and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. This project requires us to request data from your department. If you have questions about this request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.

1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.

Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).

2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.

Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).

3. How many officer-involved-shootings were there per year for the last 10 years in your department? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.

Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).

Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.

4. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.

Collecting this information is very important to our research, so we would like to emphasize, if you have questions about my request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

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 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Please note that I am a citizen of Arkansas, and am using MuckRock's services to help manage and track my request.

Sincerely,

Ryan Agnew

Sgt. Prater,

Thank you very much for the information provided. I truly appreciate your willingness to help and your timelines. I would like to clarify what I mean when I say "peer" officers, some departments call what I'm looking for "internal complaints." Do you have any data on the annual number of internal complaints in your department during the past 10 years?

Respectfully,
-Alex Cartwright

Thank you. I just want to confirm - is it accurate to say that The Little Rock PD does not track internal complaints?

Hi,

Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer

Hello,

I'm writing in relation to my FOIA request submitted on 9/9/17

Thank you very much for the time an effort you spent sending this information over. The Officer involved shooting data (OIS) that you provided is not usable since it is not in the format we requested. We need to know OIS on an annual basis – for example OIS in 2013, 2012, etc., for the previous 10 years. You provided us with the total number of OIS for the past 10 years. Sorry for any miscommunication on my end.

Also, please clarify what constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department. For example, some departments do not count misses while others count all discharges; some include shots at animals. Other departments include intentional and accidental shootings; others do not. Please explain to us how your department classifies the OIS included in the numbers you sent to us.

Very Respectfully,
-Alex Cartwright