Q: We requested from the sheriff department the following documents regarding homeless and/or transient people, people sleeping or camping outside, and/or people sitting on public sidewalks:
- Documents setting forth guidelines, policies, practices or standards used by the sheriff’s department regarding homeless and/or transient persons;
- Documents regarding and/or generatd by sheriff’s department in their publicly stated campaign to clean-up “illegal camping” sites which took place during three days in May;
- Records of communications on or since that time from the sheriff’s department and any county supervisor, any agent of any state or county Park Service, and any agent of the County Department of Health and Human Services.
We did this in response to a sweep of homeless encampments by the County Sheriff in conjunction with numerous other county agencies. The Sheriff’s Department responded that they had “been unable to locate responsive documents and as such cannot comply therewith.” In addition, the sheriff’s department then engaged in retaliatory intimidation, sending a deputy to question the person whose name appears on the request for information.
A: It sounds like there are two different issues here. The first question is whether sheriff’s department has complied with California’s Public Records Act. To the extent you believe that responsive documents exist and that department has simply not provided them, your ultimate recourse would be filing an action in court to enforce the PRA.
A preliminary step might be a follow-up letter explaining why you believe the documents exist and asking the sheriff’s department to review its records to confirm that no responsive records exist, perhaps reminding the department that if you are forced to sue to enforce your rights under the PRA and prevail in the litigation, you would be entitled to your attorneys’ fees. Govt. Code Section 6259.
The second issue is whether the Sheriff’s Department engaged in any unlawful activity by having a deputy question the person who sent the PRA request. This very troubling incident is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of what we can address through this service. But I encourage you to speak to an attorney who might be able to provide you with specific legal advice and representation.
You might be able to find such an attorney though FAC’s Lawyer’s Assistance Request Form at https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/lawyers-assistance-request-form/, the Humboldt County Bar Association at http://www.humboldtcountybar.org, or the California State Bar Association Lawyer Referral Services Program (http://www.calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?cid=10182). You might also be interested in the National Police Accountability Project at http://www.nlg-npap.org/.