NH police budget and employment data (Hillsborough County) (Weare Police Department)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New Hampshire Right to Know Law, I respectfully request the following records related to this municipality's police department hiring, employment, and funding for the budget years 2000 through 2020:

BUDGET and FUNDING DATA - Records sufficient to show funding for municipal law enforcement offices and activities for the years 2000 through 2020.

If possible, please provide the itemized budget allocated for public safety and police department activities for each year, as well as records sufficient to show any additional funding received through other means, including but not limited to:
• funds for capital expenditures
• grants
• donations

HIRING and EMPLOYMENT DATA - Records sufficient to show the following data regarding police department employment for the years 2000 through 2020.
• The number of employed law enforcement officers (as defined by RSA 105-D:1). Please provide the date on which the provided numbers were accurate.
• Annual demographic information (age, race, gender) of law enforcement officers employed by this municipality
• Annual demographic information (age, race, gender) of any individual employed in a position of leadership within this municipality’s public safety or law enforcement department

If any of the requested information is available in aggregate form, provision of this aggregate information by year would likely satisfy this request. If there are any known caveats involved with the data and information your office is able to provide, I would really appreciate it if you could share them with me.

*Please note* that if any of the requested information is held by another office or agency, direction to the appropriate office would be greatly appreciated.

This request is being made on behalf of the statewide nonprofit Granite State News Collaborative. This request is not being made for commercial purposes. It is being made as part of a journalistic data collection effort to benefit news organizations and the public good throughout the State of New Hampshire.

If your office anticipates that fees associated with the processing of this request, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request be filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Please call 617-500-7123 with any questions about this request. If your call is not answered, please leave a message and your call will be returned as soon as possible.

I look forward to receiving your response to this request within five business days, as required by law.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I really appreciate your time and help.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton, Granite State News Collaborative

Hi Emily,

My name is Cassidy Jensen and I'm a reporter at the Concord Monitor. My colleague Beryl Lipton with the Granite State News Collaborative sent this original request. I'm writing to clarify the request and to find out more about why it was rejected.

We are requesting budget information, hiring information and demographic information from the Weare Police Department (as well as every other police department in the state). This is part of a Granite State News Collaborative data project to show the changes in the state's police forces over the past 20 years.

To simplify the request, what we are requesting is the number of law enforcement officers employed by the department in 2000, 2010 and 2020. Second, we are also requesting any demographic information for officers employed in those years. Third, we are also requesting the amount of funding (including grants, donations, capital spending) that the police department received in the years 2000, 2010 and 2020.

In your response, you wrote that department was declining the request because it was not obligated to create records. Does Weare maintain any records containing the information described in this request? Please feel free to give me a call at 603-369-3322 and I can explain in more detail.

Thanks so much for your time and attention. I appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Cassidy Jensen
The Concord Monitor

Hi Emily,

My name is Cassidy Jensen and I'm a reporter at the Concord Monitor. I'm reaching out again because I'm writing a story now about responses to records requests we've received as part of this project, and I plan to feature Weare's response in that story. Can you provide more information about this denial?

Please feel free to call me at 603-369-3322 and I can clarify this request.

Thanks,
Cassidy