What follows are verbatim transcriptions, courtesy of Times Herald-Record cops reporter Keith Goldberg, of two state police memos concerning the release of public information.
I’ll post them here without comment, other than to highlight one line in the second memo.
Executive Memorandum 2008 EM 08-12 Issued: 3/14/08
Public Information Report
From: William J. Callahan, State Police Administrative Director
To: All Members
Articles 18 and 31 of Members Manual require stations to provide information to public about events occuring in their patrol areas. The Zone Public Information Report is automatically generated for each zone and made available on the Intranet. Generated daily at 9 a.m., it includes all new information entered in SJS in a 24 hour period from 7 a.m. the previous day. The individual Public Information Report will be available on the Intranet for one week and then removed.
Every patrol station will print a single copy of their zone’s Public Information Report and place it in a binder accessible for public review. The binder will contain the current day’s report plus the prior six days. Reports over seven days old will be purged. Supervisors shall review the report for sensitive or confidential information before making it available to the public. Questions regarding this issue can be addressed with Division PIO at 518-457-2180.
The Zone Personal Information Report binder shall be inspected at the appropriate Division installation during business hours, except on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. These inspections shall be subject to the availability of a member to supervise such an inspection; these inspections shall not impede or curtail regular official business functions being conducted at such installation.
Do not disseminate any photocopies of this report. [Emphasis in the original]
Requests for additional information not contained in the Public Information Report will be directed to a supervisor or the Investigating Memeber. Specific questions on what to release should be directed to a supervisor. It is still the responsibility of the Investigating Member to provide the desk with press release information.
It should be noted that the Personal Information Report will not include the following: a) Mental Health Law (MHL) detainments or b) incidents in which no arrest was made but are deemed to involve privacy issues under the Public Officers Law or c) when the agency assigned is designated as a Special Unit or d) names of arrested persons less than 16 years old or e) cases with a “Pending Arrest” status* or f) when the incident category is one of the following: domestic, sex offense, suicide, mental health or unknown. Domestic and sex offense incidents ARE included if an arrest is made.
*Note: A new Incident Status of Pending Arrest is now in SJS. This is to be used only for incidents when an arrest is imminent and the Investigating Member does not want the incident to be included in the next day’s Public Information Report. When the arrest is made, change the incident status to Arrest-Adult and the incident will be included in the next day’s report. This executive memorandum supersedes any prior instruction on media review of SJS incidents.
And then there’s this other memo:
From: F211 Monroe Station Sergeants
To: Fichera, Maryann; Florida Troopers; Monroe Sergeants; Monroe Troopers
Date: 3/14/2008 11:42:28 PM
Subject: New Zone Public Information Report
All:
Division has revised procedures for the PRESS BLOTTER. We will no longer be printing out our typical press blotter. Division has implemented a new report: the Zone Public Information Report. This report is generated by Division each day and is available to be printed after 9 a.m.
The day shift will print his report between 9 a.m. and noon each day utilizing the below procedure. It will be placed in the binder identified as the Troop F-Zone 2-Public Information Report. This report is vague and will prevent unnecessary information from being disseminated to the press and public. [Emphasis here added] It will be the responsibility of the Investigating Member or supervisor to release additional information to the press.
The binder will keep the current day’s report plus the prior six days.
To access the report:
Goto E-Applications
Goto Database
Goto SJS
Goto Case Management
Goto Zone Public Information Report
Goto Troop F, Zone 2
Print the report for the current day of the week after 9 a.m. and before noon
Place report in correct binder
Purge any report older than seven days
BRF
The silence is deafening
I can tell you from personal experience that getting public records from the Village of Kiryas Joel — a duly incorporated municipality in New York — is an exercise in futility.
I have Freedom of Information Law requests from last year that have gone totally ignored.
Heck, I have some from 15 years ago that I am still waiting for a response (I have stopped holding my breath.)
Here’s the latest chapter in ignoring the law:
Jan. 25, 2008: We send a FOIL request asking for access to building permits issued in 2007, access to the village planning board’s meeting minutes and any code violations issued by the village in 2007.
Feb. 21, 2008: We get an acknowledgement letter, saying the village is working on the request and to give them 20 days.
April 4, 2008: We sent a follow-up letter asking about the status of the FOIL since we’ve gotten no reply and it’s well past the 20 days.
April 23, 2008: We send appeal letter to the KJ municipal offices and to the village’s lawyer, Don Nichols, telling them we consider the request to have been “constructively denied” (read: they are just ignoring us) and therefore we are appealing.
June 13, 2008: Still waiting….