OIS - Firearms Discharges

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) Incident-level data on Paterson (NJ) Police Department officers’ drawing their weapons/firearms in the course of their duty: I request data from years 2000 to 2020, including the time, date, and street address (e.g. 123 Main St) for all incidents where an officer drew their weapon/firearm;
2) Incident-level data on the Paterson (NJ) Police Department officers’ discharging their weapons/firearms in the course of their duty: I request data from years 2000 to 2020, including the time, date, and street address (e.g. 123 Main St) for all incidents where an officer discharged their firearm;
3) If incident-level data on the Paterson (NJ) Police Department officers’ discharging their firearms in the course of duty from years 2000 to 2020 inclusive is available, I also request associated data on whether the shootings by the officers were lethal (i.e. suspects or civilians died as a result of gunshots from officers’ weapons) or were non-lethal (i.e. suspects or civilians were shot but did not die); and
4) Demographic data on the officers and suspects or civilians involved in each incident of Paterson (NJ) Police Department officers drawing, discharging, and/or striking (lethal and non-lethal) of suspects or civilians.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

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 7 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Michael Owens

There was nothing attached to your message and I never received a 12/12/23 message. This truly is the first response I ever received from your department per the Muckrock system