HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 14569
City of Palo Alto (ID # 14569)
City Council Staff Report
Meeting Date: 8/15/2022 Report Type: Information Reports
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Title: Police Department Update: California Public Records Act and Racial
Identity Profile Act (RIPA)
From: City Manager
Lead Department: Police
Recommendation
This is an informational report and no Council action is required.
Discussion
This informational report is to advise Council on the Police Department’s process of
responding to Public Records Act requests and to update Council on the submission of
Racial Identity Profile Act (RIPA) data to the Department of Justice, which began on
January 1, 2022, in compliance with AB 953.
Police Department California Public Records Act Process
The Police Department regularly receives requests for records both directly and through
other City Department communications. The past fiscal year, the Department processed
approximately 2200 police record and public record requests. These requests are
handled by the Department’s Custodian of Records in coordination, as needed, with the
City Attorney’s Office and other departments. To process requests to the Department
more efficiently, the Department implemented GovQA’s public records management
platform in November 2021. Since the vast majority of records requests are for incident
reports such as traffic collisions and other police reports, maintaining its own system
enables the department to most efficiently process and respond to such requests.
Members of the public may request records by visiting the Department’s website,
making a request in person at the counter at 275 Forest Ave, or asking any member of
the Department or other City employee. (To ensure clear communication, individuals
who make oral requests may be asked to confirm their request in writing.) On receipt of
a request, Department staff determine whether the City has responsive records after
gathering and reviewing relevant records. Staff then determines if any exemptions from
disclosure may apply. If they do, specific records are redacted or withheld from release.
The Department is not required under the PRA to create a new record in order to
respond to a Public Record Act request.
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The Public Records Act requires that the Department give an initial determination within
10 days of receipt of the request as to whether the Department has responsive records.
The Act allows the City an additional 14 days to make that determination in some cases,
such as for requests spanning multiple departments, requests that involve searching
records in off-site storage, or for particularly voluminous requests. While the Public
Records Act does not require the release of documents within these same time frames,
the Department often releases responsive records at the same time as giving an initial
determination. Some requests, however, do take longer to review and release, such as
those containing statutorily-protected information.
A recent media inquiry brought to light the need to ensure that the City is employing
features of the GovQA platform to ensure managers are overseeing the Public Records
Act process and that staff are prioritizing responses in compliance with the due dates
mandated by the Public Records Act.
Police Department AB 953 Racial Identity Profile Act Data Collection Process,
Analysis, and Reporting Plans
The state’s Racial and Identity Profile Act (RIPA) requires law enforcement agencies to
collect and report stop data, including perceived race, gender, age, and sexual
orientation of a person stopped by a peace officer. As required for agencies of our size,
the Department began collecting Racial Identity Profile Act (RIPA) in late 2021 and
officially began the data collection period for the current year on January 1, 2022. In
the current process, Department officers submit RIPA data directly to the California
Department of Justice (DOJ) through a DOJ web portal. The Department is required to
annually report to the Attorney General data on all stops conducted by officers for the
preceding calendar year, and must issue its first round of reports to the Attorney
General by April 1, 2023. (See Gov. Code section 12525.5).
With data collection underway, the Department is working on how to report this data to
the public. The City’s RIPA data was recently requested under the Public Records Act.
The Department had to request the raw data from the DOJ and reconstitute it into a
readable spreadsheet. Going forward, the Department is examining generating these
reports and the analysis necessary for usability of the data at specific intervals for the
public to review. The Department has been working with Stanford SPARQ (Social
Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions) over the past year and has explored
whether SPARQ is the right partner to work with the RIPA data and analysis on an
ongoing basis; however, SPARQ has advised that they are unavailable due to prior
commitments. Staff is working on a procurement strategy to contract with a vendor for
RIPA data analysis as part of developing the required reporting. Staff will return to the
City Council with more information on that agreement when available. At an upcoming
Policy and Services Committee Race and Equity Update, the Committee will have an
opportunity to discuss the frequency of data sharing and the analysis cycle related to
RIPA data.
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The Department is anticipating changing the submittal process and moving away from
using the DOJ’s RIPA reporting portal. In its place, Department officers will use the
Department’s Records Management System (RMS) software to submit the RIPA data.
The RMS system was implemented in December 2021 and currently is used for most
police data and investigation report management. The change in submission method
will be more efficient for the officer as some data fields will be pre-filled from the stop.
Using the City’s own RMS will also allow the City to retain RIPA data (instead of having
to request Palo Alto’s data from the DOJ). The Department anticipates going live with
the RMS system for RIPA data entry on January 1, 2023, pending data transmission
testing and approval by the DOJ.