Internal police policies on domestic violence committed by employees (Niagara County Sheriff)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records regarding this agency’s procedures for handling alleged and actual acts of domestic violence by its employees:

POLICIES and PROCEDURES
• The current or most recent applicable policy and guidance regarding this agency's response to complaints and allegations of domestic violence made against its employees
• All policies and guidance related to reporting by this agency (to the state government, federal government, private researchers, and any other party) of domestic violence committed by or alleged against employees of this agency
• A blank copy of all forms and logs used in the process of recording and addressing domestic violence allegations against and investigations of employees of this agency

COMPLAINTS and INVESTIGATIONS
• All materials (including but not limited to all complaints, reports, investigatory materials, internal affairs reports, and any other records) related to all allegations of domestic violence made against employees of this agency for the period from January 1, 2010 through July 31, 2020.
• All aggregate data related to allegations and investigations of domestic violence committed by this agency's employees for the period from January 1, 2010 through July 31, 2020.
• All reports, data, and other reporting materials provided by this agency to any other entity (including but not limited to the state government, the federal government, private researchers, and any other party) on domestic violence committed by or alleged against employees of this agency

This request is being made by a reporter as part of a journalistic investigation. It is being submitted to your agency at the suggestion of a MuckRock reader from your community, part of a project to better understand uses of police force nationwide. This has been of public interest for many years and is of particular interest to the public following the widely-seen death of George Floyd and subsequent First Amendment-protected demonstrations and public discussion. There is no commercial interest in making this request or in receiving responsive records.

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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton