Andrew Quemere v. Chicopee, City of - Police Department (SPR 20201677)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records September 18, 2020 SPR20/1677 Kevin Corridan, Esq. Chicopee Law Department 17 Springfield Street, 1st Floor Chicopee, MA 01013 Dear Attorney Corridan: I have received the petition of Andrew Quemere appealing the nonresponse of the City of Chicopee (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on August 25, 2020, Mr. Quemere requested: ● All policies, procedures, guidelines, and training records related to the police department’s internal affairs investigations ● All division-wide and department-wide reports/audits of the police department’s internal affairs investigations for the years 2010 to the present (by division-wide and department- wide, I mean reports/audits that provide an overview of complaints/internal investigations for an entire division or the entire department, not reports/audits about a specific incident) ● All annual data on the number of complaints and internal affairs investigations for the years 2010 to the present (if the records containing the data contain data for additional years, it is not necessary to remove the extra information) ● All data on the total number of complaints against each department employee. The Public Records Law The Public Records Law strongly favors disclosure by creating a presumption that all governmental records are public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A(d); 950 C.M.R. 32.03(4). “Public records” is broadly defined to include all documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any town of the Commonwealth, unless falling within a statutory exemption. G. L. c. 4, § 7(26). One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre • pre@sec.state.ma.us

Kevin Corridan, Esq. SPR20/1677 Page 2 September 18, 2020 It is the burden of the records custodian to demonstrate the application of an exemption in order to withhold a requested record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(b)(iv); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(3); see also Dist. Attorney for theNorfolk Dist. v. Flatley, 419 Mass. 507,511 (1995) (custodian has the burden of establishing the applicability of an exemption). 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. Subsequent to the intervention by a staff member of the Public Records Division, I learned that the City provided Mr. Quemere a response dated September 15, 2020. Conclusion In light of the City’s September 15th response, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Mr. Quemere may appeal the substantive nature of the City’s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Andrew Quemere Louis Vezina