Police and Fire Department Records
Q: To whom it may concern. I am seeking assistance in obtaining a couple of reports from our City and the fire department. I had already walked in my request for public information and still have not received any written response. Today I visited in person the fire department and asked what the status of the info request was. I was told to go somewhere else to get the one report (ISO) and that they would not release the “Incident report” for a structure fire and they had checked with their lawyer and they did not have to release the requested information.
The reason we are asking for the information is obtain an accurate assessment of our community’s true fire protection. This would aid us in planning for additional emergency resources to the citizens of our City.
A: Under Government Code § 6253(a) of the California Public Records Act, public records are open to public inspection during regular office hours of the agency that has the records. If the department has a copy in its office, it is required to make a copy “promptly available” to you upon request under § 6253(b). If the fire department does not have physical custody of the ISO, then the department should either obtain a copy for you (and tell you when it will have that copy ready) or should tell you where you can obtain a copy. This result would seem to be required by § 6243(c)(1), which allows an agency to take an extra 14 days to provide a copy if the records have to be gathered from another facility, and § 6253.1, which requires the agency to provide practical assistance to those seeking access to public records under the PRA.
If the department needs to determine if your request seeks disclosure of records that may be exempt from disclosure under the PRA, it can take up to 10 days to notify you of its decision — but only if you’ve filed a written request for the records. The 14-day extension is on top of this initial 10-day period, but again only applies to a written request. There is no clear time line for an oral request for records that are not in the custody of the department you approached.
With respect to the Incident Report, the California Supreme Court held, in a case called Williams v. Superior Court, 5 Cal. 4th 227 (1993), that the PRA does not require that law enforcement (which would probably include the fire department for this purpose) have to provide copies of the actual report, but requires only that they provide certain information in that report. The information that must be provided is set forth in § 6254(f))(2): “the time, substance, and location of all complaints or requests for assistance received by the agency and the time and nature of the response thereto, including, to the extent the information … is recorded, the time, date and location of occurrence, the time and date of the report, the name and age of the victim, the factual circumstances surrounding the crime or incident, and a general description of any injuries, property, or weapons involved.”