Request for death records (Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York)
| Tracking # |
FOIL-2020-816-00583 |
| Multi Request | Request for death records |
| Submitted | June 11, 2020 |
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Communications
From: Matt Kiefer
To whom it may concern:
This is a request pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law. We are requesting all death records dating back to Jan. 1, 2020, with the following information for each case:
- case number
- decedent name
- date of death
- location of death
- race
- ethnicity
- age
- gender
- occupation/industry
- whether injury/infection occurred at work
- incident location (street address, city, state, ZIP where injury/infection occurred)
- incident date
- decedent residence (street address, city, state, ZIP)
- cause(s) of death (indicating if COVID related)
- contributing factors
- any other non-exempt information contained in case records
This request is part of an ongoing collaboration involving the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University, the MuckRock Foundation and partner newsrooms across the country. This request is part of a news-gathering process and is intended for educational, not commercial use.
We request expedited processing to the extent possible. This information is critical to the public’s understanding of the coronavirus pandemic and its local impact on public health. Let us know if we can help clarify this request in any way. Please also consider waiving any fees for producing the requested records.
Please provide the data in spreadsheet format as an e-mail attachment.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. We look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.
--
Matt Kiefer
John S. Knight Journalism Fellow
Stanford University
312-380-5163
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 11, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #FOIL-2020-816-00583.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
Hi,
Several of the items you requested, with the exception of cause of death, manner of death and borough of death, are considered personal identifying information, which the NYS Public Officer’s Law prohibits from being released, as doing so would be an invasion of personal privacy. If we conducted a query in our case management system for a list of all deaths from January 1,2020 – June 26, 2020, it would simply be a list of cause of death, manner of death, and boroughs without any other information. Additionally, OCME’s case management system does not have a field that inputs whether or not an injury/infection took place at a decedent’s workplace. We also do not have a field in our case management system to keep track of the date an incident took place if it is different from the date of death.
Please let me know if you would still like to go forward with this FOIL request.
Thank you,
Melanie L. Rios
Records Access Officer
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has denied your FOIL request FOIL-2020-816-00583 for the following reasons: (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00583)
Your request under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) is denied. Please see the attached determination letter.
* Your request is denied as this request is identical to the request you submitted under FOIL-2020-816-00582.
Please visit FOIL-2020-816-00583 to view additional information and take any necessary action. You may appeal the decision to deny access to material that was redacted in part or withheld in entirety by contacting the agency's FOIL Appeals Officer: (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00583) ocmefoilappeals@ocme.nyc.gov within 30 days. (mailto:ocmefoilappeals@ocme.nyc.gov?subject=FOIL-2020-816-00583%20-%20Appeal)
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has acknowledged your FOIL request FOIL-2020-816-00582. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582) You can expect a response on or about At this time the OCME is still responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Your request will be answered at our earliest convenience. Tuesday, December 29, 2020.
Please visit FOIL-2020-816-00582 to view additional information and take any necessary action. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582)
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 11, 2020. You previously indicated that it would be completed on Dec. 29, 2020. I wanted to let you know that I am still interested in the following documents, and to see if that date was still accurate. You had assigned it reference number #FOIL-2020-816-00583.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 11, 2020. You previously indicated that it would be completed on Dec. 29, 2020. I wanted to let you know that I am still interested in the following documents, and to see if that date was still accurate. You had assigned it reference number #FOIL-2020-816-00583.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has extended the time to respond to your FOIL request FOIL-2020-816-00582 for the following reasons: (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582) You can expect a response on or about Thursday, February 11, 2021.
Additional Information:
The OCME requires additional time to respond to your request as this request requires an IT query and the OCME is preparing to respond to the second wave of COVID-19.
Please visit FOIL-2020-816-00582 to view additional information and take any necessary action. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582)
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has responded to your FOIL request FOIL-2020-816-00582 with the following note. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582)
This information will not be accessible to the public for 20 work days. Hello, I am responding to your Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) request, received on June 26, 2020, which states: This is a request pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law. We are requesting all death records dating back to Jan. 1, 2020, with the following information for each case: - case number - decedent name - date of death - location of death - race - ethnicity - age - gender - occupation/industry - whether injury/infection occurred at work - incident location (street address, city, state, ZIP where injury/infection occurred) - incident date - decedent residence (street address, city, state, ZIP) - cause(s) of death (indicating if COVID related) - contributing factors - any other non-exempt information contained in case records." The Office of Chief Medical Examiner (“OCME”) conducted a diligent search of its records for decedents whose date of death was on or between 1/1/2020 – 6/26/2020 and has attached a spreadsheet in response. The spreadsheet contains the following columns: date of death, time of death, gender, city of death, state of death, place of death zip code, age, immediate cause of death, secondary and third causes of death, and other significant causes of death. The OCME will not provide you with the decedent’s Medical Examiner case number, name, place of death address, or residential address, as the release of this information would result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, pursuant to New York State Public Officers Law, Article 6, Section 89(2). The OCME is unable to respond to your request for a decedent’s ethnicity, occupation/industry, whether an injury/infection occurred at a decedent’s workplace, or the incident location or date , as the OCME’s records are not organized in a manner that would allow a search for responsive records to be conducted. A manual search would be unduly burdensome, pursuant to NYS Public Officers Law §89 (3)(a), as such search would require the physical search of thousands of individual death records, which search could not be outsourced to a third-party contractor. Please note that the data in the spreadsheet includes only deaths where the OCME had jurisdiction or custody of the decedent, as the OCME does not handle all deaths in New York City. If you wish to appeal this decision, you may do so within thirty (30) days of its receipt. You may appeal to: Leslie C. Kamelhar, Esq., FOIL Appeals Officer, Office of Chief Medical Examiner, 421 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10016. Please feel free to email me back should you have any questions. Thank you, Melanie Rios Records Access Officer
On Friday, February 26, 2021 this note will be publicly available on the OpenRecords Portal.
Please visit FOIL-2020-816-00582 to view additional information and take any necessary action. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582)
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has responded to your FOIL request FOIL-2020-816-00582 with the following file(s). (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582) The file(s) listed below will be accessible to the public on the OpenRecords portal in 20 business days ( Friday, February 26, 2021).
* 2020-816-00582: 2020-816-00582.xlsx (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/response/1413550?token=c288b018b5a349e1a8111863e29ff23a)
Please visit FOIL-2020-816-00582 to view additional information and take any necessary action. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582)
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2020-816-00582
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has closed your FOIL request FOIL-2020-816-00582 for the following reasons: (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2020-816-00582)
Your request under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) has been reviewed and the documents you requested have been posted on the OpenRecords portal.