VA State Police Ignoring

Asked by Ken Whittle on June 9, 2017.

3 answers from K. Braddock and Ken Whittle.

Related request

Awaiting Appeal

FOIA Request

Ken Whittle sent this request to the Virginia State Police of Virginia

Follow
Ken Whittle

I previously sent this same FOIA on my own, but they wouldn’t respond to my request b/c I was not a resident of VA. Now they seem to just ignore the same request completely since I am using Muckrock. I know there is a 30 day period, but any advice?

Ken Whittle

If you don’t have an answer then why even respond?

K. Braddock

How long have you had the MuckRock request active for? It takes some agencies weeks, months, and even years to respond to some requests. I’ve had an open request with the LAPD going on two years now and they’re still “researching.”

As far as I know, they can’t refuse a FOIA request on the grounds that you’re not a VA resident. I would look around and see if you can find the part of FOIA legislation that basically says anyone anywhere can ask for anything. You may need to contact them directly and ask for their Records/Discovery Division or their Public Information Office/Officer, or at least any department that handles Freedom of Information Act Requests. The first person to answer the phone probably won’t know but with some persistence you should be able to get someone.

Ken Whittle

I finally got a response from them, but they said “No records”…which is weird, because I have put the statements given by the Virginia State Police Spokesperson, as well as reports from their invesitgation & what evidence they took....