Local level SAEC policies/data (Santa Cruz)

Good afternoon,

This email is in response to your request for public records from the City of Santa Cruz as detailed below. Your request was received on October 11, 2017.

Requested Records:

"Attached."

The disclosable public records that are responsive to your request are attached.

Under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) you are entitled to copies of identifiable, non-exempt public records (Govt. Code section 6253). Please note that the CPRA requires the City to provide access to, or copies of, records responsive to your request which are in its possession, subject to certain exceptions. The CPRA does not require the City to provide information, answer questions, or create records which do not exist.

To the extent that any of the records you seek are attorney-client communications under the attorney-client privilege or are otherwise attorney-client privileged records, such records are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA pursuant to Government Code section 6254(k).

In addition, to the extent that any of the records you seek are drafts and notes that are not kept in the ordinary course of business for the City and which the City has determined that the public interest in withholding the record clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure due to the particular details and nature of the records, such records are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA pursuant to Government Code section 6254(a). Also given the particular details and nature of certain records that you seek, to the extent that such records involve communications to decision makers within the City for which final decisions have not yet been made and final actions have not yet been taken and/or the City has determined that the public interest in withholding the record clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure, such records are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA pursuant to Government Code section 6255.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Kelly Thompson
Records Coordinator
City of Santa Cruz
831-420-5034

Public Records Requests may be submitted online via the Public Records Request form, by email to
kthompson@cityofsantacruz.com<mailto:kthompson@cityofsantacruz.com>, or by hard copy form available at the City Clerk's Office located at 809 Center Street, Room 9, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

Please note: Public Record Act Requests submitted via email, fax, USPS, or dropoff after 5:00 p.m. on a business day, Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays will be processed as received on the next open business day. The 10-day response period begins when the request is received.

Vanessa:

I am a deputy City attorney for the City of Santa Cruz. Your follow-up request, below, is for information, but the PRA does not require the City to provide information, or to compile and extract data from its records for you. The City is required only to produce existing records that are responsive to your request.

Besides the documents that SCPD already provided you, the only other documents with information about existing kits are the reports for each case. I.e., for each report that Penal Code section 261 was violated, SCPD created a record detailing its investigation into the alleged crime. While these case reports are on an electronic management system, this system is not capable of extracting information across cases, and the City has not created documents that capture details across cases. So capturing the information you want would require a manual search of these case reports. It might also possible to capture information about the rape kit by conducting a manual search of the boxes containing the kits but, again, the City does not have any existing documents that capture information from each kit.

Amy Kapp
Attorney at Law

Law Offices of Atchison, Barisone & Condotti
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 481, Santa Cruz CA 95061
333 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: (831) 423-8383
Fax: (831) 576-2269
akapp@abc-law.com<mailto:akapp@abc-law.com>

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Santa Cruz Police Department
155 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

October 31, 2017

This is a follow up to a previous request:

Hi,

Could you please send me the other related documents you have? I understand you can't sift through them for the information I want, but I don't mind doing that work myself.

-Vanessa

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/agency_login/santa-cruz-police-department-7370/local-level-saec-policiesdata-santa-cruz-43821/?email=AKapp%40abc-law.com&uuid-login=30164c71-a049-4eaf-b669-8754204e17bf#agency-reply
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 43821
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request was filed by a MuckRock staff reporter. 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.

---

On Oct. 30, 2017:
Vanessa:

I am a deputy City attorney for the City of Santa Cruz. Your follow-up request, below, is for information, but the PRA does not require the City to provide information, or to compile and extract data from its records for you. The City is required only to produce existing records that are responsive to your request.

Besides the documents that SCPD already provided you, the only other documents with information about existing kits are the reports for each case. I.e., for each report that Penal Code section 261 was violated, SCPD created a record detailing its investigation into the alleged crime. While these case reports are on an electronic management system, this system is not capable of extracting information across cases, and the City has not created documents that capture details across cases. So capturing the information you want would require a manual search of these case reports. It might also possible to capture information about the rape kit by conducting a manual search of the boxes containing the kits but, again, the City does not have any existing documents that capture information from each kit.

Amy Kapp
Attorney at Law

Law Offices of Atchison, Barisone & Condotti
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 481, Santa Cruz CA 95061
333 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: (831) 423-8383
Fax: (831) 576-2269
akapp@abc-law.com<mailto:akapp@abc-law.com>

Please consider the environment before printing this email.
---

On Oct. 24, 2017:
Thank you! I'm wondering if you have the amount of backlogged kits?

-Vanessa
---

On Oct. 13, 2017:
Good afternoon,

This email is in response to your request for public records from the City of Santa Cruz as detailed below. Your request was received on October 11, 2017.

Requested Records:

"Attached."

The disclosable public records that are responsive to your request are attached.

Under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) you are entitled to copies of identifiable, non-exempt public records (Govt. Code section 6253). Please note that the CPRA requires the City to provide access to, or copies of, records responsive to your request which are in its possession, subject to certain exceptions. The CPRA does not require the City to provide information, answer questions, or create records which do not exist.

To the extent that any of the records you seek are attorney-client communications under the attorney-client privilege or are otherwise attorney-client privileged records, such records are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA pursuant to Government Code section 6254(k).

In addition, to the extent that any of the records you seek are drafts and notes that are not kept in the ordinary course of business for the City and which the City has determined that the public interest in withholding the record clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure due to the particular details and nature of the records, such records are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA pursuant to Government Code section 6254(a). Also given the particular details and nature of certain records that you seek, to the extent that such records involve communications to decision makers within the City for which final decisions have not yet been made and final actions have not yet been taken and/or the City has determined that the public interest in withholding the record clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure, such records are exempt from disclosure under the CPRA pursuant to Government Code section 6255.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Kelly Thompson
Records Coordinator
City of Santa Cruz
831-420-5034

Public Records Requests may be submitted online via the Public Records Request form, by email to
kthompson@cityofsantacruz.com<mailto:kthompson@cityofsantacruz.com>, or by hard copy form available at the City Clerk's Office located at 809 Center Street, Room 9, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

Please note: Public Record Act Requests submitted via email, fax, USPS, or dropoff after 5:00 p.m. on a business day, Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays will be processed as received on the next open business day. The 10-day response period begins when the request is received.

---

On Oct. 13, 2017:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code §§ 6250), I hereby request the following records:

Any and all statistics, data, reports, audits, policies, and procedures pertaining to the following items regarding sexual assault evidence collection (SAEC) kits (also known as "rape kits") and processing:

• all standard operating procedures regarding the SAEC process

• any written policies or procedures regarding department practices on the acquisition of or handling of rape kit evidence, including protocols for its collection, testing, and delegation and transfer to all other possibly relevant locations, laboratories, or agencies

• the number of kits collected and booked into evidence from the period of January 1, 2000 through the date this request is processed

• the number of kits that have been processed by a public or private crime or forensic laboratory or equivalent processing location from the period of January 1, 2000 through the date this request is processed

• the number of unprocessed kits in any storage facilities currently under the department’s jurisdiction and control, including those held by medical personnel or at external laboratory locations

• any materials regarding the status or ultimate disposition of cases in which a kit was collected. Please include all available segregable data.

• all audits involving this agency regarding the collection or backlog of SAEC kits

• all proposed alterations or yet-to-be-implemented changes to the policies and procedures regarding the collection, testing, and use of SAEC kits

If there any questions about this request, please feel free to call us at the MuckRock office at 617-299-1832.

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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Vanessa Nason

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/agency_login/santa-cruz-police-department-7370/local-level-saec-policiesdata-santa-cruz-43821/?email=AKapp%40abc-law.com&uuid-login=30164c71-a049-4eaf-b669-8754204e17bf#agency-reply
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 43821
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request was filed by a MuckRock staff reporter. 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.

Hello Vanessa,

I do not have access to Police records. I will leave it to our City Attorney’s office to determine if your request can be fulfilled.

Thank you,
Kelly

Vanessa:

I thought it was obvious that you could not be sent the rape kits or otherwise be allowed access to them, and that the case reports are investigative records exempt from production under Government Code section 6254(f). Only someone authorized by SCPD could compile the information you’re seeking. But, since compiling information is outside the scope of the PRA’s requirements for production of existing documents, SCPD does not have to do this and, even if it was willing, you would have to pay for the time required to do this.

Amy Kapp
Attorney at Law

Law Offices of Atchison, Barisone & Condotti
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 481, Santa Cruz CA 95061
333 Church Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: (831) 423-8383
Fax: (831) 576-2269
akapp@abc-law.com<mailto:akapp@abc-law.com>

Please consider the environment before printing this email.