My Freedom of Information Law friends in New York City have warned me that the NY Police Department is notorious for doing all it can to thwart and hinder requests for public records, starting with keeping all important correspondence with requesters on paper. Yep, the NYPD doesn't do transparency via the web and email.
In late November, I filed a FOIL request for a copy in electronic format of Police Commissioner William Bratton's calendar from January through October.
A snail-mail reply arrived today informing me that "[b]efore a determination can be rendered, further review is necessary to assess the potential applicability of exemptions set forth in FOIL, and whether the records can be located. I estimate that this review will be completed, and a determination issued, within ninety business days of this letter."
We'll see if the NYPD needs that much time to figure out if Bratton's calendar can be located!
While waiting for the next move by the police, be sure to read an excellent investigation into former NYPD boss Ray Kelly's calendar from New York Daily News reporters Rocco Parascandola and Larry McShane, that appeared on Nov. 20th.
These intrepid reporters obtained hundreds of pages of Kelly's calendar and all police accountability should laud such govt watchdogging. There simply is not enough scrutiny of calendars of big city police chiefs.
File a public records request today for your police department chief's calendar and write about the process and what's on the calendar, in order to increase accountability.
Here's the paper letter from the NYPD:
No comments:
Post a Comment