Police Officer performance survey (Massachusetts State Police)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

I am requesting the compliment and complaint records for uniformed officers within your agency in 2014. I am also requesting the total number of uniformed officers that served in 2014.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

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 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Joseph Palin

Massachusetts State Police Legal Section,

Thank you for your prompt follow-up. In asking for compliment and complaint records, I was specifically looking for copies (electronically if possible) of the compliments and complaints you received for uniformed officers. If you have statistical information already compiled on compliments and complaints, I would appreciate that as well.

Thank you again,
Joseph Palin

To Staff Counsel Rooney,
Massachusetts State Police Legal Section

Thank you for the breakdown of fees associated with my request. Given the size of the task and associated cost, would you give me an updated fee estimate to receive copies of the complaints from 2014 for just the uniformed officers with last names beginning with the letters A, B, or C, and a simple tally, without documents or even officer names, of how many complaints were filed for each officer with at least one complaint filed?

Sincerely,
Joseph Palin

Greetings Staff Counsel Rooney,

Given the way the survey has changed, I'm forgoing the request for the text of the actual records. The complaint distribution statistics you provided will suffice. Thank you.

That said, I do need to ask one clarifying question. In a previous correspondence, you noted that there were 261 citizen complaints filed in 2014, and running through the data you sent most recently, I'm counting a total of 223 citizen complaints (across 197 officers). Would you clarify the discrepancy for me?

Thank you,
Joseph Palin