from: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
to: [email protected]
cc: Public Records Request Inbox <[email protected]>
date: May 5, 2022, 4:43 PM
subject: Re: Your City of Asheville public records request #21-84 has been closed.
Good Afternoon City of Asheville Records,
Our team would like to request additional clarification regarding the request above: (August 2021) Request for City of Asheville, NC: Internal communications related to use of force policy change at Asheville Police Department 1/1/2020 – 08/30/2021
This request was sent to the City on on August 31, 2021 and originally called for:
“… all City of Asheville Employee internal communications (including, but not limited to: Staff emails, memos, and notices) which are related to “underreported Use of Force”, as well as, “Change in APD’s Use of Force Policy”.
The responsive records should include the time period of when Chief David Zack was hired [exact date unknown, but I think it’s around 01/01/20?] until the present day (date the query is performed).”
The City’s response on April 20, 2022:
“Email searches using the search terms provided (“underreported use of force” and “change in APD’s use of force policy”), as well as variations of these terms, yield no results. Additionally, the City is unfamiliar with the term “underreported use of force”. Would you be able to provide any additional search terms that may yield the type of information you are looking for?”
Part of our response back on April 26, 2022:
“ … I do not know what other “variations of these terms” the City looked for and/or whether the search terms are case sensitive (it would be helpful if you can specify). However, to further clarify, I suppose you should query the following terms:
Use of Force , use of force , use of force policy , uof policy , UOF policy , UoF policy , UOF , U.O.F. , UoF , u.o.f. , uof , underreporting , underreported , underreport , under report “
The City’s response on May 02, 2022:
“The City of Asheville does not have any records responsive to your request. As outlined in N.C. General Statute § 132-6.2, we are not required to compile information or create a record that does not exist. Your request is now closed. Please reply to this message or contact [email protected] if you have any questions.”
Did you conduct a recent search using all the additional bolded terms we provided above, and you found that there were no responsive records during the time period of 01/01/2020 – present day? Additionally, if you only conducted your search for the time period of 01/01/2020 – 08/30/2021, are you saying that you also did not find any responsive records? In either scenario, we’d like to ask for additional clarification on the following:
In June 2020, the City completed a request for a “… complete copy of Asheville, NC Police Department Use of Force Policy in place as of 06/05/20”, found here. With this in mind – Can you please clarify whether you confirmed that there were no responsive “Internal communications” sent between anyone within the City during the time period specified for the August 2021 request (including Terry’s communications about our June 2020 request, if there were any)?
Thank you!
Status:
Clarification Requested
