Pretrial drug testing of DC arrestees (Council of the District of Columbia)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the DC Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

All statements of the general course and method, rules of procedure, substantive rules of general applicability adopted as authorized by law, statements of general policy or interpretations of general applicability formulated and adopted, and each amendment, revision, or repeal of the foregoing, regarding the pretrial drug testing of arrestees in the District of Columbia, including but not limited to the drug testing of arrestees prior to arraignment. This requests includes the policies, rules, and procedures for testing and measuring an arrestee's use of drugs, what specimen or sample is collected, how much of that specimen or sample is collected, how the specimen or sample is collected, what drugs are tested for, how the drugs are tested, what error rates apply for each drug (such as the rate of false positive and false negatives), how screening is to be done for lawfully prescribed medications, what is done to avoid cross-contamination, what is done to keep track of each specimen or sample, chain of custody, how chain of custody is recorded, what paperwork and forms are to be completed, how such information is stored, retained, and transmitted, and for how long, and any other information regarding the procedure and methods of pretrial drug testing of arrestees in the District of Columbia.

All administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff regarding the pretrial drug testing of arrestees in the District of Columbia.

Copies of all records, regardless of form or format regarding the procedure for pretrial drug testing of arrestees in the District of Columbia (i) that have been released to any person under 5 U.S. Code § 552, paragraph (3); and (ii) (I) that because of the nature of their subject matter, the agency determines have become or are likely to become the subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records; or (II) that have been requested 3 or more times.

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 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jade Chong-Smith

Dear Brackett Smith,

Thank you so much for your response. Can you kindly specifically direct me to any and all matters handled by council responsive to my previous request (beyond providing the link lims.dccouncil.us), or confirm that the Council has not legislatively authorised, or considered, or been informed of, or overseen the drug testing of arrestees prior to arraignment, and has no responsive documents? I am aware that through D.C. Code § 23–1321, the DC Council has authorised pretrial drug testing as a condition of release once someone has been arraigned, but am not aware of a code section governing pre-arriagnment drug testing, or whether or how the Council has considered or been informed of such drug testing of pre-arraignment arrestees, and such information would be responsive to my request.

Pursuant to D.C. Code § 2–532, "[i]n making any record available to a person pursuant to this section, a public body shall provide the record in any form or format requested by the person." As stated in my initial request, "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 once again!

Kind regards,
Jade Chong-Smith

Hello Brackett,

Thank you for your response. I am intersted in receiving any and all records that reflect the process by which arrestees in D.C. are to be drug tested, and record that reflects the D.C. Council's decision-making process regarding passing any law requiring that all arrestees in DC, or whether no such records exist. Please let me know if that helps clarify the situation.

Thank you so much!
Jade

Hello Brackett,

Thank you for your response. I write to correct the request previously submitted, as I omitted some key words. I am intersted in receiving any and all records that reflect the process by which arrestees in D.C. are to be drug tested prior to arraignment, and records that reflects the D.C. Council's decision-making process regarding passing any law requiring that all arrestees in DC be drug tested prior to arraignment, or whether no such records exist. I am aware that through D.C. Code § 23–1321, the DC Council has authorised pretrial drug testing as a condition of release once someone has been arraigned, but am not aware of a code section governing arraignment drug testing, or whether or how the Council has considered or been informed of such drug testing of pre-arraignment arrestees, and such information would be responsive to my request. Please let me know if that helps clarify the situation.

Thank you so much!
Jade