Tamara Sacharczyk v. Holyoke, City of - Police Department (SPR 20191576)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray S11pe111isor of Records August 12, 2019 SPR19/1576 Caron L. Potier Holyoke Police Department 13 8 Appleton Street Holyoke, MA O1 040 Dear Officer Porter: I have received your petition on behalf of the Holyoke Police Depaiiment (Department) seeking an extension of time to produce records. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). As required by law, it is my understanding that the Department furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. In an email dated August 6, 2019, Tamara Sacharczyk requested various categories of records concerning "missing, stolen, and/or unaccounted for firearms and other weapons that belong to the Police Department from 2009-2019." Petition for an Extension of Time Under the Public Records Law, upon a showing of good cause, the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may grant a single extension to an agency not to exceed 20 business days and a single extension to a municipality not to exceed 30 business days. In determining whether there has been a showing of good cause, the Supervisor shall consider, but shaU not be Hmited to considering: (i) the need to search for, collect, segregate or examine records; (ii) the scope of redaction required to prevent unlawful disclosure; (iii) the capacity or the normal business hours of operation of the agency or municipality to produce the request without the extension; (iv) efforts undertaken by the agency or municipality in fulfilling the current request and previous requests; (v ) whether the request, either individually or as pati of a series of requests from the same requestor, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and (vi) the public interest served by expeditious disclosure. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). One Ashbmion Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre• pre@sec.state.ma.us

Caron Porter SPR19/1576 Page 2 August 12, 2019 Current Petition In its petition, "[t]he Department respectfully requests that the Supervisor of Public Records authorize an extension oftime for the Department to fully respond to Ms. Sacharczyk's request, pursuant to 950 CMR 32.06(4)." The Department explains, "[a] review of the August 5th request would take substantially more than the normally-allotted amount of time, given the normal operating hours of the Department, the scope of redaction required, and the need to search through, examine, and segregate records." You explain that in light of the above, " ... the Department anticipates that it will require more than the ten business days allowed under the public records law to fully respond to all of these requests ... " With respect to the amount of additional time needed, the Department asse1is "[f]or the foregoing reasons, the Department respectfully requests that it be granted an additional fifteen business days to fully respond, for a total of twenty-five days." Conclusion I find that in light of the volume of responsive records, the scope of redaction required, the capacity of the Department to produce the request without the extension, and the effmis undertaken by the Department in fulfilling the request, the Depaiiment has established good cause to permit an extension of time. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(c)(i)-(iv). I hereby grant the Department the requested extension to furnish copies ofrecords responsive to Ms. Sacharczyk's request. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). The Depaiiment is advised it must provide the records in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law and its Access Regulations. To the extent possible, the Depaiiment must provide responsive records on a rolling basis. Ms. Sacharczyk may seek judicial review of this decision by commencing a civil action in the appropriate superior court. See G. L. c. 66, §§ lO(c), lOA(c). Sincerely, ~ I T ~ Supervisor of Records cc: Tamara Sacharczyk