Rousseau, John v. Executive Office of Public Safety and Security - Department of State Police (SPR 20150870)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords January 6, 2016 SPRlS/870 Ms. Jaclyn R. Zawada, Esq. Department of State Police Office of the Chief Legal Counsel 4 70 Worcester Road Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Attorney Zawada: I have received the petition of John D. Rousseau appealing the response of the Department of State Police (Department) to his request for public records. G. L. c. 66 § 1O (b ); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2). Specifically, Mr. Rousseau requested copies of records related to a vehicle stop/incident on or about April25, 2007. In a response dated September 16, 2015 the Department provided Mr. Rousseau with responsive record with certain information redacted citing to Exemptions (c) and (f), the privacy and investigatory exemptions to the Public Records Law. The basis of Mr. Rousseau's appeal is that he believes the redacted information should be made public. In telephone conversations with me and members of my staff you indicated your intention to revise the Department's response in an effort to meet the specificity requirements of the Public Records Law. Accordingly, I will consider this administrative appeal closed with the proviso that the Department provide a revised response to Mr. Rousseau within ten (1 0) days, prepared in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations. If the Department maintains that any portion of the responsive records are exempt from disclosure it must provide to Mr. Rousseau a written explanation, with specificity, how a particular exemption applies to each record. To meet the specificity requirement a custodian must not only cite an exemption, but must also state why the exemption applies to the withheld or redacted portion of the responsive record. A copy of any such response m st be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response 'so 1ce at pre@sec.state.ma.us. cc: Mr. John D. Rousseau OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/ pre