How to structure Public Records

Requests
Especially
Police Public Records and Emails
Know your Agency
Knowing the structure* of your Agency will help
you identify who would have the emails you are
after.
Organization Charts, Budgets, Rosters, and Public
Websites can all help you build a picture of how
your Agency is structured.

* Structure here means who reports to whom; who gives
tasks, and who does those tasks. These parties will have to
communicate and that is where you get records which give
you insight into that process.
Police Chain of Command
Patrol Officers are commanded by Sergeants,
Sergeants are commanded by Lieutenants,
Lieutenants are (sometimes) commanded by Captains,
Captains are (often) commanded by Assistant Chiefs,
Most agencies have Detectives -
but this is a function, not a rank.

Chiefs command the Assistants (or the Captains)
and sometimes the Lieutenants of special units.

Chain of Command
The higher up the chain, the more the emails are
about POLICY and STRATEGY.
Lowest ranks will have the most specific emails
(Names, license plate numbers, house addresses,
nicknames, etc)
Sergeants and Supervisors will have emails about
how work is structured; who does what, when,
and how.
Each level has its place in proving the department
did this spying as POLICY and not as ROGUE
COPS.

Know your Intelligence Groups
Interagency Intelligence Groups are
commonplace now.
Your County Sheriff, or largest area City will
likely host the closest Intelligence Group
Each state has at least one Fusion Center

See https://www.aclu.org/whos-spying-your-neighborhood-map for
specific information - some of which is known to be out of date (WA)


Intelligence Distribution
Modern intelligence distribution is like a private
internet.
Emails distribute links to private online spaces
which are cops only zones.
The links expire long before you get the emails as
public records.
The web sites are public records, too but you
will have to fight in court for retention and
disclosure. Federal rules tend to protect these
records from disclosure.
Intelligence Distribution
Intelligence is not just sent to Cops.
Intelligence is also shared with private
industry, with local political leaders (City
Councils, Legislatures, etc), and with the
Military.
Each recipient is a potential source for public
records, as long as they get public money to
do what they do.
Washington State Example
Washington State Fusion Center / WSFC
(Originally) Nine Regional Intelligence Groups
Crime Analyst Positions at each Agency.
RIGs consist of Crime Analysts / Intelligence
Analysts at each agency in a County or RIG area
(some are multi county), plus FLO (Fusion Liason
Officers).
Often weekly or biweekly meetings of RIGs.
Analysts are often CIVILIANS under contract.
Specifics
Collect and file Intelligence Sharing Documents, the characters rotate in and out.
Follow the Money
Grants often open intelligence and Fusion
Centers, and tracking those grants can reveal a lot
of information about structure.
Departments of Emergency Management often
fund intelligence analysts rather than the Sheriffs
Department or the Police.
State Patrols often run the Fusion Center for a
state. This means they contract the analysts, they
house or lease the facilities, and they set the
rules and procedures, and supervise the analysts.
Email Requests
Specify, as much as possible, WHOSE emails
you wish to examine, by name or position.
Specify a time period (keep it as short as you
need, shorter means you will get records
sooner and have fewer emails to sort and
read).
Specify a topic or keyword ONLY if you must.
It is best to bracket the time of an incident
(emails for a week before, and after, a date).
Email Basics
You want the email, AND the Metadata, AND the
attachments.
You want these as ELECTRONIC FILES, not images
of pages.
Metadata is who sent it, when, who got it, and
the detailed headers.
Attached files can be as important as the emails -
READ ALL OF THEM.
Dont forget to check the author data on attached
files. Often this gives clues to intelligence
identities which would otherwise be redacted.
Email basics (cont)
Every email has at least one sender, and at
least one recipient.
Map each recipient of any crucial emails
who are they? Which Agency, which role do
they fill? Why were they sent this email?
Keep note cards (3x5) of each person in the
Agency so you can quickly identify whos on
the list in an email of interest.

Email Followups
When you get a critical email, also request
emails from the RECEIVING Agencys
employee.
The set you get from Agency B might reveal
more information that Agency A would not
share with you.
Consider simultaneous requests from each
Agency in the first place.
Extracting Emails
Some agencies give you Outlook files, some
give you Adobe PDF files, some give you
images of printed and redacted pages.
When sharing an email from electronic form,
share it as a pdf (Use CutePDF to print the
specific email pages to a PDF file).
This limits the degree to which the email can
be altered, post sharing.
License Plate Searches
Police often use License Plates to ID those who
show up at a rally, a meeting, or a house they are
spying on.
Police collect these plate numbers and run them
through state databases for information about
who owns the vehicle and any warrants, criminal
history, or problems they can act on immediately.
Logs of these searches can instruct you on when,
where, and who is spying on your group.

Washington example: ACCESS
ACCESS logs show which license plate, when it
was searched, and who searched it, as well as
what was returned.
The details of the Owner record are often
redacted; you will need a Privacy Waiver to
get certain information revealed, but if you
have that waiver you already know whose car
it was so you might not have to bother.

Example
03/02/2007 11:15 Sent by SP017,
NO User ID
SP017Q257DOLDB.L.WAWSP10S8.249NDA < License Plate Number

DECODED WITH INDEX INFO:
WAWSP10S8 :WSP TACOMA COMM CNTR :STATE PATROL
TACOMA COMMUNICATIONS :112TH ST E :2502 :
:OLYMPIA :THURSTON :WA:98504-2600:SEE ORI
WAWSP1000 : : : :SP017:Y:

MY NOTES:
First day of Military Convoys to Tacoma Port (4-2 Strykers);
8:10PM 2:50AM
Deception phone calls claiming this would be going through Olympia.

Timeline the License Searches
Simple Word file in date / time order.
Shows the origin of many targeted stops,
follow up research by intelligence groups, and
other potential targets of the same officers.
Keep the files for any future lawsuits /
depositions.
Correlate with Tickets, stops, arrests, protest
dates, etc.
DO NOT PUBLISH THIS KIND OF ANALYSIS.

Follow up Searches
Once you have the ORI number of an agency terminal
which searched your vehicles, request a date limited
log of ALL the searches done by that terminal around
the same time.
Timeline these other searches; some will be fellow
activists, some will be bystanders parked near the
meeting or house where the police found the plate
numbers.
Ask your groups members to ask for their own license
plate searches and then share those with you; they
should be the primary custodian of their own records.
Tricks of Public Records Disclosure
The Paywall: Pay us to search for records, pay
us to copy records, pay us for electronic
records as if we spent money on paper copies.

The Dribble: Here are your first 30 emails, in
a month and a half we will send you 30 more,
and then 30 more; it will be 2045 before we
are done playing this game.
Defeating the Paywall
It is nearly always free to examine records at
the office of the Agency.
If they insist on using paper, show up with a
digital camera and photograph all the pages.
Pay for nothing.
Most photocopiers now can scan a big pile of
records and email it to the Records Clerk, who
can redact that set and forward it to you as a
file via email or Cloud storage.
Defeating the Dribble.
Keep the original request open.
File new requests based on the partial information
from earlier sets dribbled.
Make it clear that as long as they continue to dribble
records at an unreasonable rate, every installment will
generate one or two new follow up requests.
Make as much work for them as you can. The dribble is
intended to limit the scope of their work and force you
to specify your research question rather than wait.
Once it stops working, they cannot keep using it.
Whats a BIG request?
City of Tacoma example:
Please list out any examples of extremely burdensome requests,
including the estimated number of hours it took to fulfill and any
cost calculations, that exceeded 100 hours:

Allied Law requested ten months worth of public disclosure
requests, responses, and any communication regarding public
disclosure. Rough estimate of 1,000 hours of staff time to search,
review, redact, create privilege logs, do request-specific
training/Q&A, and communicate with the requester. This has been
an open PDR since June 2010 and is still open at this time (though
they have indicated verbally they may cancel the request). Staff
from all levels of the organization were involved, but most of the
time was spent by public records staff who make $17 to $25 dollars
an hour, for a general cost estimate of $17,000 to $25,000.
Meta Requests
Yes, you can and probably should ask for
earlier public records requests (the forms and
emails which actually made the records requests,
including contact info for the requestors)
This should help you see what records are
available, and potentially link you with others
who study the same Agency which you are
looking at.
The request language in other requests can also
be useful in constructing your own requests.
Request Language
It is not important to cite the law, quote the
law, or explain the law.
The person you are writing to will ALWAYS
know more about Public Records Law than
you do they do this all day, they get paid to
do it.
Just the facts: What you want, how they can
contact you, and as brief as possible. If they
dont understand, they will ask you to clarify.
Specify your Specifics
Who you are (so they know if youre a Felon)
What you want (describe the records)
What date range (limit the scope of records)
What format you want it in, if that matters
NEVER EXPLAIN WHY YOU WANT IT.
Where they can reach you (Email, phone, address)
If you leave anything out, you have wasted a week or
two (nothing fatal, so JUST DO IT).
Washington State
Revised Code of Washington 42.56
http://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=42.56
Read through your States law at least once
Dont sweat the exemptions: you will learn
them soon enough.
Each Public Records Officer uses them a little
differently; learn whos whom.
Examples
This is a request for all video and audio recordings taken by WSP Cessna aircraft in the Puget Sound Region
(both Smokey 3 N2446X and Smokey 4 N305DK) on May 1st 2014 12:01AM through 11:59PM as well as all
mission logs, incident reports, emails related to preparing the mission(s), or emails resulting from the
mission(s) between January 1, 2014 and May 2, 2014 12:20PM.
I prefer electronic delivery via email or drop box for both of these requests, please inform me of any
associated reproduction costs prior to incurring same.

This is a request for A roster of all WSP sworn officers, including first, middle, and last name, date of hire,
current rank, current assignment, current office or unit name, phone number, current base pay rate, total
overtime for most recent complete fiscal year, or calendar year 2013, whichever is most recent.
I would prefer electronic delivery of this record.

I would like to have digital copies of all Planning emails, CAD logs, Incident Reports, Time and Activity Logs,
After Action Reports, Incident Command System logs, Videotape, Audiotape, and associated materials
compiled for the "Gun Rights Across America Washington State - Stand Your Ground" event held at the
Washington State Capitol Campus on Sunday, January 19, 2014 held from 12 Noon onward.




Basic Psychology
Never be rude to Secretaries or Clerks they are
your best potential allies.
Never argue with the person. If you must argue,
argue the law or the rules.
Always appeal denials or redactions to the
original agency clerk, first.
Go to court only if the first appeal fails to win
concessions.
If you do go to court, press for damages / fines to
recoup your costs.

Keep Secrets
If a clerk overshares information, keep your
mouth shut. Dont get them fired, their co-
workers will remember you forever.
Just because you have the details does not
make that story YOURS TO TELL.
Always check with the named persons in a
criminal allegation, AND the VICTIMS, before
you publish a police report.