Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program

Received and acknowledged, thank you.

A letter stating that the request appeal has been received and is being processed.

Good Afternoon Mr. Quemere,

As you know, the Department of State Police has received your request for records seeking:

* All policies, procedures, and training materials related to the Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program
* All incident reports related to the Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program from January 1, 2012 to the date this request is filled.

In response to your request for policies, procedures, and training materials, please see the attached Standard of Operating Procedures. As you will see, personal cell phone numbers of uniformed members have been redacted pursuant to G. L. c. 4, §7, cl. 26 (o). Please note that members of the Narcotics section undergo training with the MA National Guard Counter Drug Program prior to participating in this program, and all training is put on by that agency.

In response to your request for all incident reports from January 2012. Please note that incident reports are not generated for every seizure. Incident reports are only generated if criminal charges are being sought by the State Police. Additionally, Local Departments have first right of refusal to handle an incident. The Department would not have reports if the Local Department elected to handle the case and pursued criminal charges. Incident reports are not tracked by subject matter, but by subject name. Therefore, the only way of knowing if one of these seizures resulted in an incident report being generated, would be to manually review each seizure to identify if charges were sought by the Department. From 2013 to the present, 7,909 plants have been seized from approximately 441 locations. The narcotics section would have to review each of these in order to identify the handful of potential incident reports. If you would like us to proceed with this, we would need to prepare a cost estimate. Any narrowing of the dates or locations you could offer would help reduce the required time and corresponding cost. However, the Department does have a spreadsheet from 2013 to the present which does breakdown every seizure by date, city/town and number of plants seized. Please see the attached spreadsheet.

If you object to the Department’s response to your request or any portion of the same, you may appeal the Department’s response in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66, §10(b) and 950 CMR 32.00.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Jenniffer P. Migliaccio (O’Neil), Esq.
Staff Counsel
Department of State Police
State Police Headquarters
470 Worcester Road
Framingham, MA 01702
(508) 820-2348

A letter stating that the request appeal has been received and is being processed.

Good afternoon,

Please find attached this office's letter of determination in your appeal, numbered SPR 16/1003.

Thank you,

Kellie Sullivan
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth
Public Records Division
One Ashburton Place, Room 1719
Boston, MA 02108
617-727-2832

Hi Mr. Quemere,

Attached please find the spreadsheet previously provided to you. I did not have it in its original format when I initially responded to you, I was only provided a printout copy that I scanned in. In response for all incident reports for any seizure operation listed on the spreadsheet where police turned up two or fewer marijuana plants, I do have someone researching whether any incident reports were generated for those seizures.

Thank you.

Jenniffer P. Migliaccio (O’Neil), Esq.
Staff Counsel
Department of State Police
State Police Headquarters
470 Worcester Road
Framingham, MA 01702
(508) 820-2348

The request has been rejected by the agency.

Good Afternoon Mr. Quemere,

In response to your inquiry seeking “incident reports for any seizure operation listed on the spreadsheet where police turned up two or fewer marijuana plants,” a search was performed and it is my understanding that there are no incident reports involving a seizure from the spreadsheet of two plants or less. If a detective unit from a DA’s office or a local police department took out charges during that time frame, those reports would be with those agencies. However, the search we performed indicates that no charges were sought for grows of that size or less after they were seized.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Jenn

Jenniffer P. Migliaccio (O’Neil), Esq.
Staff Counsel
Department of State Police
State Police Headquarters
470 Worcester Road
Framingham, MA 01702
(508) 820-2348

A letter stating that the request appeal has been received and is being processed.