Santa Clara, CA PD Citizen Complaints
| Submitted | Aug. 17, 2017 |
| Est. Completion | Sept. 15, 2017 |
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Communications
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code §§ 6250), I hereby request the following records:
We are Economics Professors in the College of Business at Ferris State University, and are engaged in an empirical research project on police behavior and citizen complaints. This project requires us to request data from your department. If you have questions about this request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
1. What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your department’s officers annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
2. What is the total number of complaints police officers made against their peer officers in department annually for the last 10 years? If your department logs complaints in a database, spreadsheet, or other log, a copy of those logs is fine instead.
Please include the type of complaint (i.e., use of force, abuse language, unwarranted search) and the result of complaint (i.e., sustained, exonerated).
3. What is the annual number of officers involved in shootings in your department for the past 10 years? Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient.
Please include documentation regarding how many of these officer-involved shootings involved disciplinary action. (Please list officer firearm discharge directed at a person separately from a shooting involving an animal and separately from accidental firearm discharges).
Please include the number of officer-involved shootings resulting in discipline.
4. Which of the above data are published publicly? Please provide a link to any and all publicly available reports containing the data above.
Collecting this information is very important to our research, so we would like to emphasize, if you have questions about my request or suggestions, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
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 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
From: Carolyn McDowell
Mr. Cartwright and Ms. Dirmeyer
Attached is a preliminary response from the Santa Clara Police Department.
If you have any questions, please contact me at (408)615-4892.
Thank you,
=Carolyn
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
Hello,
Thank you for the update. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Respectfully,
Alex Cartwright
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following California Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 17, 2017. You previously indicated that it would be completed on Sept. 15, 2017. I wanted to let you know that I am still interested in the following documents, and to see if that date was still accurate.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
This E-mail was sent from "RNP002673A8A301" (MP C4503).
Scan Date: 09.14.2017 06:36:17 (-0700)
Queries to: copier@santaclaraca.gov
________________________________
The information contained in this email may be privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message from your computer. Thank you
From:
This E-mail was sent from "RNP002673A8A301" (MP C4503).
Scan Date: 09.14.2017 06:40:59 (-0700)
Queries to: copier@santaclaraca.gov
________________________________
The information contained in this email may be privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message from your computer. Thank you
From: Gary Hosman
Good morning Alex,
Regarding your PRA request, please confirm you received a couple of scanned documents from me this morning. I apologize if I sent them twice. These are the annual documents I have sent to our Department of Justice for the two years I have been in this assignment.
Regarding officer involved shootings. I do not have a number for you off-hand; however, no officers have been disciplined for an officer-involved shooting. Additionally, our City retention policy only goes back five years on personnel matters; therefore, I will try to find other documentation that has been sent to the DOJ in previous years.
Good luck with your research and study.
Sergeant Gary Hosman
Professional Standards Unit
Santa Clara Police Department
408-615-4888
________________________________
The information contained in this email may be privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message from your computer. Thank you
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
Hello Sgt Hosman,
Thank you very much for following up with me. I did get the scanned document- it was only 2 pages, and I only saw information for 2016. Is there additional information on the way? I look forward to receiving the information on officer involved shootings when you have it.
Respectfully,
Alex Cartwright
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following California Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 17, 2017. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Sept. 15, 2017. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Gary Hosman
Hello Alex,
It is best that I refer you to the California Department of Justice website for specific information regarding our department. I report specific categories to them annually and they may be in the best position to give you accurate information that is open to the public. I do not have any specific statistics to share with you regarding officer involved shootings from this department.
Best of luck with your research.
Sergeant Gary Hosman
Professional Standards Unit
Santa Clara Police Department
408-615-4888
-
~WRD000
From: Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
Hi,
Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Alexander Cartwright and Jennifer Dirmeyer
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