swat- maryland state police
Submitted | June 16, 2015 |
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Communications
From: Jonathan Mummolo
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act § 10-611 et seq., I hereby request the following records:
1. All incident reports or other records documenting each time your agency's S.W.A.T. team (sometimes called a police paramilitary unit) was deployed.
2. In the event such records are not kept, I request a list of the dates of deployment of the agency's S.W.A.T. team during this period.
3. In the event these records/dates are not available for the entire time period covering this request, I request you supply the above information for the period covering the present back to as long as such records/information are available.
This request is being made for academic, not commercial, purposes.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
From: Jonathan Mummolo
To Whom It May Concern:
This is an addendum to the public records request I submitted on 6/16/2015, copied below. Please note that this public records request refers to the time period 1995 to present. If records during part of that time period are not available, I request that you fulfill my request for all available dates in that time period. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
----------
Original Request:
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act § 10-611 et seq., I hereby request the following records:
1. All incident reports or other records documenting each time your agency's S.W.A.T. team (sometimes called a police paramilitary unit) was deployed.
2. In the event such records are not kept, I request a list of the dates of deployment of the agency's S.W.A.T. team during this period.
3. In the event these records/dates are not available for the entire time period covering this request, I request you supply the above information for the period covering the present back to as long as such records/information are available.
This request is being made for academic, not commercial, purposes.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
Dear Mr. Mummolo, I received your PIA request today. You referenced
"during this time period" but I see no time period listed. What exactly is
the time period you are interested in? Also, what incident reports are you
referencing? Maybe if you call me I can tell you what we maintain and see
if this is what you are looking for. Thanks!
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Donna L Brown -State Police- <donna.brown@maryland.gov>
Date: Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 12:45 PM
Subject: 15-00636 - PIA Request - STATE Team
To: Wesley Forchion -State Police- <wesley.forchion@maryland.gov>
Cc: Daniel Nelson -State Police- <daniel.nelson@maryland.gov>, Norman W
Dofflemyer -State Police- <norman.dofflemyer@maryland.gov>
F/Sgt. Forchion,
Attached is a PIA request from Mr. Jonathan Mummolo in reference to the MSP
State Team. Please take charge of this and let me know the outcome so I
may let the Superintendent's Office know.
I will be sending a letter to Mr. Mummolo advising him that we are in
receipt of his request and that it has been forwarded to you.
Remember, this is time sensitive. Thank you
Donna L. Brown
Special Operations Bureau
410-653-4218
From: Jonathan Mummolo
Lt. Nelson,
Thank you for the follow up. I tried to leave you a phone message after getting your note but have not heard back. I apologize for accidentally omitting the date range from my initial records request.
After communicating with many state and local agencies, I have since altered my request into one that appears to be most feasible. Please see the revised request below. I can be reached at (202)-527-5640 if you require clarification.
Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
----revised request:
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act § 10-611 et seq., I hereby request the following records:
1)
a) The dates of, and reasons for, all S.W.A.T. team deployments for as far back in time as such records exist. If the tactical operations unit in your agency goes by another name besides “S.W.A.T.”, (e.g. “TAC” or “PPU”), then please provide the above information for that unit.
b) If possible, please provide the above information in a spreadsheet in which each row contains the following information: the date of each deployment (month, day, and year); the reason for the deployment (e.g. "hostage barricade"; "warrant service”, etc). For reference, here is an excerpt from a spreadsheet supplied to me by another law enforcement agency:
date reason for deployment
9-18-03 "High risk prisoner transport"
11-29-03 "Hostage barricade"
3-31-04 "Warrant service".
c) If the information is readily available, please also supply in the spreadsheet: the location of each deployment (the city or zip code).
d) If only some of these data fields are able to be supplied, (for example, if dates and reasons can be supplied, but locations cannot), then please fulfill the portion of my request for which data is available rather than reject the entire request outright.
2) If the above spreadsheet does not exist and it is infeasible to generate, I hereby request the following:
a) Copies of all incident reports, (sometimes called "after-action reports"), pertaining to all of your agency's S.W.A.T. team deployments for as far back in time as such records exist.
b) If these reports contain sensitive information that cannot be released to the public, please release them in redacted form if possible.
3. If providing the responsive materials to items 1) or 2) is not possible, please instead provide me with monthly counts of S.W.A.T. team deployments in all months for which records are available. If monthly counts are not available, please provide annual counts for as far back as such counts are available.
4. If your agency's S.W.A.T. team works in partnership with other jurisdictions (i.e., multiple city or county agencies contribute members to a common S.W.A.T. team), please provide me with the names of those other agencies, noting which agency commands the unit.
5. Please inform me of the date of the creation of your agency’s S.W.A.T. unit. If the exact date is not available, please provide me with the month or year of the unit's creation.
If this request should have been sent to another employee or department, please forward my request accordingly, or reply and inform me as to where the request should be sent.
This request is being made for academic, not commercial, purposes, and the information it generates will eventually be made available to the general public. As such, I request that any fees generated by this request be waived. In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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. If paper documents are the only option, please mail them to me at:
Jonathan Mummolo
235 Olson Way, #404
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
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,
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
(202)-527-5640
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
Mr. Mummolo, thank you for clarifying your request. I believe we can get
you most of what you are asking for. We do not share any of our AAR (After
Action Reports) on the advise of our legal counsel, as these reports
contain personal suspect information as well as police tactics and this can
not be released. We do however keep very detailed records of our SWAT
deployments and from what you are asking for I believe this will more than
cover it. I do need to inform you of the following. We charge .75 per
page of copied material and if the task can be completed within 2 hours,
the cost is free. Anything over 2 hours the cost is based on the employees
hourly rate. I can get you an estimate within the next few days and let
you know what the cost will be. If this is research is not that
time consuming and can be transmitted to you via email, I will likely waive
all costs. i will get back to you shortly.
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
From: Jonathan Mummolo
Lt. Nelson,
Thank you for the update. I recently received data on your agency's S.W.A.T. deployments via the Governor's Office of Crime Control of Prevention, which has housed such data under the mandate of SB 447 since 2009. If the data you have located falls outside the scope of what GOCCP has received from your agency, please proceed with my request. However, if these data are the same then we may be able to close my request to your agency. Please call me if this requires clarification at 202-527-5640. Thank you for your time.
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 16, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
Mr. Mummolo, it will be completed by Friday August 14th. Sorry for the
delay. It should contain everything you asked for. There will be no
charge for the info or time spent compiling it. Take care.
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
From: Jonathan Mummolo
Thanks very much for this update.
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
Mr. Mummolo, in response to your PIA request, here is the second half of
the SWAT information for 2014. This should fulfill your request to the
best of our abilities. Good luck with your project.
2014 2nd Half GOCCP Swat Report.xls
<https://drive.google.com/a/maryland.gov/file/d/0B6w5uiwbuGyWRzQ4Mld5UzE4Q08zcGRteEttcDNPaXh2ei1Z/view?usp=drive_web>
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
Mr. Mummolo, I sent you the 2nd half of 2014 SWAT report for your PIA
request, but in case you have difficulty opening it in that format, I am
sending you it in this format. this should fulfill your PIA request
of the Maryland State Police. Good luck with your report.
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
-
2014 2nd Half GOCCP Swat Report
From: Jonathan Mummolo
Hello,
I just got your voicemail. I am traveling at the moment but the file opened fine. I will take a look and get back to you if there are any other questions. Thanks very much for your time and effort on this.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Mummolo
Stanford University
Dept. of Political Science
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
NP, Good luck with the project.
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
From: Daniel Nelson -State Police-
I am not sure you got this document or not so I am sending you it anyway.
This is everything for 2015 YTD
Lt. Daniel R. Nelson
Maryland State Police
Assistant Commander
Special Operations Division
7777 Washington Blvd.
Jessup, Md 20794
(410 799-4548 = Office
(443) 496-0880 = Cell
-
2015 STATE Log redacted(1)
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