Boston Police NIBRS Files
| Submitted | July 14, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Nathaniel Story
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
I'm seeking all NIBRS files submitted by the Boston Police Department to EOPSS from January 2019 to present. I believe NIBRS data is uploaded by agencies via the CrimeSOLV (https://masscrime.chs.state.ma.us/) site and these files are received by EOPSS.
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 10 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Nathaniel
From: Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
Hi Nathaniel - First, I apologize for the delay in responding. I have been out of the office and the EOPSInfo account is not equipped with an out-of-office message. For future correspondence, please send records requests to eopss.rao@mass.gov<mailto:eopss.rao@mass.gov>, which will ensure more timely response by a records access officer.
In the meantime, to clarify your request, are you looking for counts of crimes by month, or the actual listing of crimes?
Thanks,
Jake/EOPSS
From: Nathaniel Story
Jake,
Optimally I'd like the raw NIBRS XML files submitted by the department, which I believe are received by EOPSS.
If those aren't available, I'm looking for something like a listing of crimes, yes. Preferably data at the incident level that includes the unique incident number, the offense type, and any other fields available on the individual incident.
Thank you!
Nathan Story
From: Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
Got it. Thanks again. I'll pass this info along.
Best,
Jake/EOPSS
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~WRD000
From: Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
Good Morning, Nathaniel -
Please see attached responsive record to your request. Please note that the City of Boston began submitting NIBRS data in September of 2019. As such, the record attached includes NIBRS data for the months of September - December. NIBRS data for the year 2020 is not included as it is not available for release at this time.
Please note that information as to the address of the incident in the spreadsheet has been removed pursuant to G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(f) which allows for the withholding of "investigatory materials necessarily compiled out of the public view by law enforcement or other investigatory officials the disclosure of which materials would probably so prejudice the possibility of effective law enforcement that such disclosure would not be in the public interest." Without going through all of the results obtained, EOPSS is unable to determine which incident corresponds to an active and ongoing investigation. As such, all addresses have been removed in order to allow for the possibility of effective law enforcement. Further, address locations for certain offenses may also be considered protected and would not be released without an MOU. The town and county names still remain, though.
If you object to EOPSS's response, you may, pursuant to G.L. c. 66, § 10(b) and 950 CMR 32.08(2), appeal its determination to the Public Records Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Arielle Mullaney
Assistant General Counsel
Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
781-379-7753
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Boston NIBRS FOIA
From: Nathaniel Story
Thank you so much Arielle, this is perfect.
For my future reference, can you tell me when records for a particular month/year become available for release? For example, when would I need to make the request to receive January through June of 2020?
Again, thank you for putting this together for me.
Nathan
From: Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
No problem! 2020 data will not be released until 2021. We are required to submit the data to the federal government, who then review and post it. At that time, it will become available.
Have a great weekend!
Arielle
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~WRD233