City of Asheville Submitted: April 19, 2017 | Updated: June 26, 2017

Communications related to APD Statistics provided to City Council, Citizens, or City Staff

Hi.

I would like to request all communications between City Staff, City Council, citizens, or the Asheville Police Department related to the conveyance of statistics or numbers related to crime, services calls, and other police activities.

To be specific, I am not requesting the data itself, but rather the emails, text messages, or any other form of communication where this informed was exchanged.

I would request all communications that occurred between 01/01/2017 and 04/19/2017. Thank you very much for your help!

Status: Completed

Documents:

Activity:

  • June 23, 2017 9:20 am

    7 years ago

    Here are the updated emails.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1cEwlT8bz9pWjNHZng1V0QteDg/view?usp=sharing

    Ben Fulmer

    Status: Response Received from Government
  • June 21, 2017 4:16 pm

    7 years ago

    4:31pm

    Thanks Ben,

    We really appreciate it!
    – Sunshine Request

    4:16pm

    I’ll have this for you on Friday.

    Ben Fulmer

    Status: Government Processing Request
  • June 21, 2017 8:48 am

    7 years ago

    It’s with legal now, I’ll be following up with them today.

     

    Ben Fulmer

    Status: Government Processing Request
  • June 20, 2017 11:11 am

    7 years ago

    Hi Ben,

    We hope you’re having a good week so far.

    Just want to check in and ask if there any update on this?

    Thank you again for all your help.
    Have a sunny day!

    – Sunshine Request

    Status: Follow up
  • June 14, 2017 11:25 am

    7 years ago

    Ben,

    I wouldn’t expect there would be much – but since I know (from personal experience) that one of the specific categories cited by Ms. Rogers is not publicly available, this information must have been conveyed in some manner by a City official. It could have been verbally, but if there’s a public record of that information, I’d like to include that in the result of this request.
    Thank you for your assistance,
    – Sunshine Request
    Status: Clarification Requested
  • June 14, 2017 10:56 am

    7 years ago

    I’ll see what I can find. I don’t predict much though. This seems to be the kind of thing that gets brought out by the news media or through official sources to be seen by everyone that way.

     

    Ben Fulmer

    Status: Response Received from Government
  • June 14, 2017 10:07 am

    7 years ago

    Hi Ben,

     

    Thank you for fulfilling this request. Re-reading the original request, however, I don’t know if this covers everything that was requested.
    For example, on Page 9 of the document you provided an email from Meghan Rogers to City Council – in this email, she cites crime statistics in the CBD, and since some of the figures cited include Rape, I have to assume she did not pull those from a publicly available source like SimpliCity (as Rape is excluded from the City’s crime data feed).
    Interpreting the request, I believe they are looking for communications where those statistics would have been passed to an individual like Meghan – if such a record exists.
    Can you follow up on this specific situation for me – emails from any City Staff, Council, or APD to or from Meghan Rogers, 01/01/2017 to the present. I’m really only interested in any communications where crime, safety, or crime statistics are discussed.
    I’m not trying to pick out this one individual’s email intentionally, I just think it’s an example of the type of information that the requestor was interested in and was not included in the documents you provided.
    Thank you very much for your help – I think this follow up step will provide clarity to the request.
    Thank you,
    Sunshine Request
    Status: Follow up
  • June 14, 2017 9:47 am

    7 years ago

    Hello,

    Please see the link below to access the emails you requested. We appreciate your patience and the patience of the requester.

    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1cEwlT8bz9pSUhhemNsbG1CYkU?usp=sharing

    Thanks,

    Ben Fulmer

    Status: Response Received from Government
  • June 1, 2017 2:46 pm

    7 years ago

    Hi Ben,

    It has been quite a while since we’ve received any updated on this request.
    Please let us know if you are able to see the full email thread with Sunshine Request and Ben Farmer related to the request Subject: “Communications related to APD Statistics provided to City Council, Citizens, or City Staff” or if you need us to resubmit the request.
     
    We thank you for your help, and look forward to your reply.
     
    Have a sunny day!
    – Sunshine Request
    Status: Follow up
  • June 26, 2017 1:36 pm

    7 years ago

    April 26th, 2017

    Any luck getting in touch with this original requester?

    If this request is left like it is, it is expected to take several months for us to go through all of the communication.  Keep in mind, we have crime analysts in our police department that deal with data and statistics daily.  The data and statistics they communicate about are often part of ongoing investigations, which will not be subject to public records law.  We will have to go through every page in order to figure out which communication is subject to records law and there will be a lot of pages.  Even after we do all of that, there’s a slim chance the requester will actually get what he or she is looking for.  I would love to have a chance to talk directly with the requester.

    If they are only looking for communication about data and statistics relating to the recent budget situation, it would be strongly advised for them to choose specific people.  For instance, communication between Chief Hooper, Paul Fetherston, Council, maybe even Barbara Whitehorn our CFO.  Just ideas – a smaller date range wouldn’t help as much as choosing specific people.

    Thanks,

    Ben Farmer

    April 26th, 2017

    Ben(s),
    I do not have the ability to contact the original requester, so I’m going to do my best to interpret their request.
    If we narrow down the list of names, how long do you think this request will take? If it’s still going to be months, then I’d just as soon ask for the full set of information. Perhaps we’ll narrow it down and then I’ll see if they follow up with the complete request again.
    Another option, is I’d be willing to eliminate the word “numbers” from the request – I don’t think the request really wants situations where information on a single case is involved, they’re looking for wider “aggregate statistics.”
    Would it help to limit the request to emails originating from City emails, but sent to non-City emails? How long do you think that would take? I would suspect that would eliminate a lot of the ongoing investigation issues, as those are probably internal communications.
    Out of curiosity, can you explain to me the situations where an APD analyst would share crime statistics with members of the public, or even internally in the context of an ongoing investigation? It just doesn’t really seem relevant to me.
    As always, thanks for your help! We’ll figure out a plan here.
    – Sunshine Request

    April 26th, 2017

    Thanks.  We can work with this. Fulmer is training on correspondence searches and this will be a good opportunity for him to practice and play around with it.  The requester can always resubmit, of course if we end up being way off.   Better to give them something a little off sooner than have them wait months for something that’s still going to be off.   We will try our best to be as responsive as possible.

    Ben Farmer

    April 26th, 2017

    Ben,

    That’s great – so to clarify, we’re going to remove the word numbers and look for emails from City address to non-City addresses, correct?
    That sounds like a good solution for me if it speeds things up.
    I’d also still be interested, if you do have a discussion with the appropriate people, of situations where APD analysts are sharing statistics related to ongoing investigations.
    – Sunshine Request
    April 26th, 2017
    Yes that sounds like a plan.  And I’m not sure if they actually do talk about data in regards to specific incidents, but I can imagine they talk numbers quite a bit.  We’ll let you know if we find out!
    Ben Farmer
    Status: Follow up
  • April 19, 2017 5:15 pm

    7 years ago

    April 19, 2017

    Ben,

    Thank you for following up! We ask for a date range on Sunshine Request, and users have been pretty good about choosing reasonable timeframes.

    If you need additional information or keywords, please let me know and I will do my best to interpret this request to move it forward.

    My personal assumption is that they are looking for communications related to statistics shared in the context of APD’s request for funding, but since that’s not explicitly stated I don’t want to unnecessarily limit the scope of the request.

    – Sunshine Request

    April 19, 2017

    It’s manageable enough to go ahead as it is thanks to the date range. They may need to make a follow-up in case I interpret it wrong.  If you get a chance to speak to the original requester about it, just let me know.

    Thanks,

    Ben

    April 19, 2017

    Thanks Ben.

    By design, I don’t record any information that would allow me to identify the person who made the request. However, I can post “a request for clarification” on the request, and the requestor could then use the request form to provide more input, if that becomes necessary. I haven’t done that yet though, so I’d prefer to just run it as-is until we encounter any issues.

     

    – Sunshine Request

    Status: Follow up
  • April 19, 2017 3:23 pm

    7 years ago

    Good afternoon,

     

    This request is received.  Thank you for including a date range which is always helpful in broad correspondence searches.  I may end up needing a few keywords but am not sure yet.  If there’s a particular set of data/situation you’re interested in, just let me know (I may not need to limit the request, but it is always helpful to know more about what you’re looking for if you decide to share).

     

    Thanks,

    Ben Farmer

    828-259-5631

    Status: Government Processing Request
  • April 19, 2017 2:15 pm

    7 years ago

    Hi City of Asheville,

    We’ve received a new public records request via SunshineRequest.com!
    Subject: Communications related to APD Statistics provided to City Council, Citizens, or City Staff
    Message:
    Hi.
    I would like to request all communications between City Staff, City Council, citizens, or the Asheville Police Department related to the conveyance of statistics or numbers related to crime, services calls, and other police activities.
    To be specific, I am not requesting the data itself, but rather the emails, text messages, or any other form of communication where this informed was exchanged.
    I would request all communications that occurred between 01/01/2017 and 04/19/2017. Thank you very much for your help!
    Start Date: 01/01/2017
    End Date: 04/19/2017
    Thank you for your help with this request – I hope you have a great day!
    Sunshine Request
    Status: Sent to Government
  • April 19, 2017 2:15 pm

    7 years ago

    Reviewed by Sunshine Request

    Status: In Review
  • April 19, 2017 2:16 pm

    7 years ago

    Submitted to Sunshine Request
    Status: Pending