Weapons Inventory

Good morning Ms. Williams;
I am in receipt of your request below to the City of Springfield and will issue a formal response once I have had an opportunity to review the request with the Springfield Police Department. Please note that for any future requests via email, the City has setup an email address to allow for faster responses to inquiries: publicrecords@springfieldcityhall.com<mailto:publicrecords@springfieldcityhall.com>.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. My contact information is below.

Sincerely,

E. Rhett Towles, MS, Esq.
Associate City Solicitor
City of Springfield
36 Court Street, Room 210
Springfield, MA 01103
Direct: 413.787-6174
Fax: 413.787-6173

This e-mail message is generated from the City of Springfield Law Department, and contains information that is confidential and may be privileged as an attorney/client communication or as attorney work product. The information is intended to be disclosed solely to the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this email information is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete it from your computer system.

Good afternoon Ms. Williams;
In speaking with the Police Department, we noticed a point we would like to clarify with you regarding your request. Are you seeking an inventory of department-issued weapons (i.e. owned and/or leased by SPD) or of weapons seized by the department (i.e. in the course of normal business as part of law enforcement), or both? I tried to call the phone number listed in your request but the voicemail system was inoperable. Please feel free to call or email me back regarding your request.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. My contact information is below.

Sincerely,

E. Rhett Towles, MS, Esq.
Associate City Solicitor
City of Springfield
36 Court Street, Room 210
Springfield, MA 01103
Direct: 413.787-6174
Fax: 413.787-6173

This e-mail message is generated from the City of Springfield Law Department, and contains information that is confidential and may be privileged as an attorney/client communication or as attorney work product. The information is intended to be disclosed solely to the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this email information is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete it from your computer system.

Good afternoon Ms. Williams;
On or about June 1, 2015, you requested the following documents from the City of Springfield as a public record:

Any and all records showing:
1) The department's inventory of any and all weapons and weapon accessories; or
2) Mentioning and/or referring to lost, missing and/or stolen weapons

On or about June 4, you responded to an email I had sent on June 1 seeking clarification, where you stated that you were interested specifically in the Department-issued firearms. As such, I consulted with the Springfield Police Department (“Department”) and have prepared the below response relative to your requests:

The City believes that the Department’s inventory of department-issued firearms is exempt from disclosure pursuant to M.G.L. c.4, §7(26)(n), which states in part that “records, including but not limited to…records relating to the security or safety of persons, buildings, structures, facilities, utilities, transportation or other infrastructure located within the commonwealth, the disclosure of which, in the reasonable eyes of the custodian... is likely to jeopardize public safety.” It is the City’s belief that the disclosure of the requested information would jeopardize public safety. The City believes that the knowledge of the Department’s armory could assist someone intent on doing harm to the public at large or the individual police officers themselves.

The City also believes that the Department’s inventory of department-issued firearms is exempt from disclosure pursuant to M.G.L. c.4, §7(26)(b), which states in part that records are exempt from disclosure so long as they “related solely to internal personnel rules and practices of the government unit, provided however, that such records shall be withheld only to the extent that proper performance of necessary governmental functions requires such withholding.” The City only uses the inventory list for internal departmental purposes and disclosure of this list may prove detrimental to both the Department’s necessary governmental function in law enforcement efforts and public safety. As stated in the prior exemption reference, the public knowledge of the Department’s armory could assist someone intent on doing harm.

In regards to your second request relative to documents “mentioning and/or referring to lost, missing, and/or stolen weapons, to the best of my knowledge and information, neither the Department nor the City has any documents responsive to your request.

Should you be aggrieved by this response, you may appeal to the Supervisor of Public Records in the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office pursuant to 950 CMR 32.00 and G.L. c.66, §10(b).

Please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. My contact information is below.

Sincerely,

E. Rhett Towles, MS, Esq.
Associate City Solicitor
City of Springfield
36 Court Street, Room 210
Springfield, MA 01103
Direct: 413.787-6174
Fax: 413.787-6173


This e-mail message is generated from the City of Springfield Law Department, and contains information that is confidential and may be privileged as an attorney/client communication or as attorney work product. The information is intended to be disclosed solely to the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this email information is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete it from your computer system.