Nebraska police certification 2023-03-03

From: requests@muckrock.com <requests@muckrock.com>
Sent: Friday, March 3, 2023 11:36 AM
To: Urbanek, Brenda <Brenda.Urbanek@nebraska.gov>
Subject: Nebraska Public Records Act Request: Nebraska police certification 2023-03-03

Law Enforcement Training Center
Nebraska Public Records Act Office
3600 North Academy Road
Grand Island, NE 68801

March 3, 2023

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a public records request made via MuckRock under the Nebraska Public Records Act, seeking records related to law enforcement officer certification in this state.

This request is brought by Big Local News along with a collaboration of news organizations, including ABC News, KQED, MuckRock, the Invisible Institute, and other news organizations. Big Local News is a program of Stanford University’s Journalism and Democracy Initiative and helps journalists collect, process and analyze public data.

We are seeking two categories of certification records:

* All certified officers
All law enforcement officers who are actively certified as of the date of this request (or when the request is processed). If your system maintains historical records of previously certified officers who are no longer active, please include them as far back as possible. If correctional officers are certified by your agency, please include them as well.

* Decertified officers
All law enforcement officers who have been decertified through revocations, voluntary surrenders, suspensions or any other actions going back as far as possible. Please include records for decertified correctional officers if available.

Data elements for certified officers:
* Officer unique ID number
* POST or state certification ID number
* Officer’s full name
* Officer’s date of birth or, if not releasable, year of birth or current age
* Officer’s city and/or zip code of residence
* Officer’s last/current department or agency
* Officer’s last/current department or agency start date
* Officer’s last/current position and/or rank at that department or agency
* Officer’s previous departments/agencies (employment history), with start and end dates
* Officer’s positions and/or ranks at previous departments or agencies
* Officer’s original date of certification
* Current status of certification (active, lapsed, expired, suspended, etc.)
* Last action taken on certification
* Date of last action on certification
* Disciplinary actions taken against this officer’s certification
* Dates of disciplinary actions taken against this officer’s certification
* Training history/additional certifications of this officer, if available

Data elements for decertified officers:
* Officer unique ID number
* POST ID number
* Officer’s full name
* Officer’s date of birth or, if not releasable, year of birth or current age
* Officer’s city and/or zip code of residence.
* Officer’s last department/agency, with start and end date
* Officer’s last position and/or rank at that department or agency
* Decertification action taken (revocation, suspension, voluntary surrender, etc.)
* Date decertification action taken
* POST case number, if applicable
* Reason for decertification or similar action

If your certification system contains data elements not listed above, please include them in the response, provided they are releasable under the law. On the other hand, we recognize some of the information we are asking for may not be tracked by your system. If that is the case, we are willing to accept as many of the data elements as your agency maintains. If some records are more readily available, we are happy to receive partial information as soon as possible while the remaining request is processed.

In addition to the data elements listed, we request documentation necessary to understand and interpret the data, including but not limited to record layouts, data dictionaries, code sheets, lookup tables, etc.

Our preference is to receive structured data provided in a machine-readable text file, such as delimited or fixed-width formats. We can also handle a variety of other data formats including SQL databases, Excel workbooks and MS Access. If there are additional formats your agency would prefer to provide, please let us know.

We are seeking this information as a news media organization on a matter of public interest concerning the conduct of government. As such, we ask for a waiver of all fees, if allowed under state law. If fees are necessary to reimburse the agency for actual costs, we agree to pay up to $100. If costs exceed that amount, please let us know before fulfilling the request.

Please send clarifications and questions via electronic communication at any time. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request.

Sam Stecklow
Journalist
Invisible Institute

View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/

If prompted for a passcode, please enter:
••••••••

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 141741
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

Mr. Stecklow,

This is response to your public records request dated March 3, 2023 and the Commission's request for an extension for more time. I want to thank you for your patience in this matter as the Crime Commission has recently seen a change in the positions for the executive director and the director of the Training Center.

The Crime Commission does maintain a database on Nebraska officers that contains much of the information that you requested (Names, Age, Gender, Race (limited to the time it was collected), Current rank, Certification status), Primary Law Enforcement Agency and Original Employing Agency). Based upon Neb. Rev. Stat. §84-712.05(8), the date of birth for each officer would be redacted from the report to be provided to you. The data base does not collect home addresses, personal contact information, religious affiliation and misconduct information. I have attached that report pursuant to your request.

Regarding your request for officer employment history and training records, the database does include this information for each officer; however, due to the way the information is stored, these records cannot be exported for multiple officers at the same time. They must be exported individually for each officer through the database's interface. This cannot be done as a batch across the officers but must be done one at a time. There are approximately 8,800 officer files whose individual records would need to be opened, exported with the FOI report tool, and labeled by NLETC personnel one at a time to fulfill this request. The Crime Commission estimates that this process would have to be repeated at least twelve times per officer. In order to accomplish this process for each officer, the Crime Commission estimates that it would cost $4,720.00.

Pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat §84-712, the requesting party is responsible for the reasonable cost of providing the requested information. Upon receipt of the above stated amount, the Crime Commission will begin to process your request regarding employment history and training records. Please understand that the cost provided is only an estimate and the actual cost could exceed the estimated cost. As such, you would be expected to provide any additional monies for the actual expense. As the requester, you have ten business days to review the estimated costs and request that the Crime Commission fulfill your request, negotiate with the Crime Commission to narrow or simplify the request, or withdraw the request. If you do not respond to the Crime Commission within ten business days, the custodian shall not proceed to fulfill the request relating to employment his and training records.

Regarding your second request for officer decertification information, the Crime Commission does maintain a list of Nebraska officers who have been decertified, but it does not contain all of the information you requested. Neb. Rev. Stat. §84-712(3)(e) provides a public body is not required to produce or generate any public record in a new or different form or format modified from that of the original public record. I have attached the decertification list maintained by the Crime Commission for you review.

Pursuant to law, the Crime Commission is required to inform you of your rights under the Public Records statutes. Neb. Rev. Stat.§84-712.03 provides remedies to any person who believes that his/her rights granted by Neb. Rev. Stat. §84-712 to 84-712.03 have been denied. Essentially, you have the right to administrative or judicial review as provided by section 84-712.03.

Sincerely,

David A. Stolz
Agency Counsel
Nebraska Crime Commission

This request was partially complied with on July 10th. The remainder of the request was a waiting payment for the reasonable cost of producing the requested records. The estimated cost is $4,720.00, per the July 10 email correspondence. As noted in that correspondence, “As the requester, you have ten business days to review the estimated costs and request that the Crime Commission fulfill your request, negotiate with the Crime Commission to narrow or simplify the request, or withdraw the request. If you do not respond to the Crime Commission within ten business days, the custodian shall not proceed to fulfill the request relating to employment his and training records.” Since the Commission has not heard back within the 10 business days, your request will not be acting upon.

David A. Stolz
Agency Counsel