Policy Text
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GENERAL ORDER
REQUESTS FOR RECORDS P URSUANT TO THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS
ACT
I. General
1. This order shall take effect immediately.
2. The purpose of this Order is to establish the procedure for release of
records requested pursuant to G overnment Code section 6250, et seq.,
the California Publ ic Records Act.
II. Procedure
1. Upon receipt of a request for re cords submitted under the Ca lifornia Public
Records Act (CPRA), either oral or written, the requestor shall be directed
to the PRA System at www.sacsheriff.com.
2. If the requestor elects not to use the PRA System, the recei ver of the
request shall create a reco rd in the PRA System.
3. All CPRA requests received by the Professional Standards Div ision shall
be entered and managed thr ough the PRA System.
4. The Professional St andards Division will determine what divi sion will be
assigned to compile the records. When that determination is mad e, the
Professional Standards Division will contact the relevant Divis ion
Commander. The Division Commander will assign the request to on e of
the following:
a. Assistant Commander.
b. Operations Commander
c. Administrative Sergeant
5. As soon as practical the a ssigned division’s employee(s) des ignated to
compile the records will contac t the Professional Standards Div ision to
provide a time estimate to comp ile the records, advise if only part of the
records are in the possession o f the Sheriff’s Office, or if th ere are no
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responsive records to the CPRA request. All communication betwe en the
division employee and Legal Affa irs within Prof essional Standar ds shall be
in writing via email.
6. The assigned divisional emplo yee(s) will provide any respons ive
documents directly to Legal Affair s. If there are any documents that
contain information that may be deemed confidential, the divisi onal
employee will identify those documents for po ssible redaction. After these
documents are identified, Legal Affairs will make redactions or withhold
records in accordance wit h all applicable laws.
7. Within 10 days of receiving t he CPRA request, Professional Standards
Division will:
a. Determine whether to comply, i n whole or part with the CPRA
request, or determine if additional time to respond is required
Notify the requestor of its dete rmination by using the PRA Syst em.
8. The response provided by the Professional St andards Division will
indicate:
a. Whether records exist res ponsive to the CPRA request.
b. If a document is going to be withheld, the reason for why th e
document is being withheld has to b e identified in the response .
c. If records will be withhel d, it must set forth names and
titles/positions of each per son responsible for denial.
9. If the request for records is v oluminous or would require an extensive
search, the divisional employee assigned to compile the records will
convey that information and an es timate of how long will be req uired to
compile the records to Professi onal Standards via email as soon as
possible.
a. Upon notification from the divi sion employee, the Profession al
Standards Division will notify t he requestor that a 14 day exte nsion
of time is being requested, set ting forth the reasons for the
extension of time and the date on which a determination is
expected. An extension of time will only be r equested in unusua l
circumstances because of the need to:
i. Search for and collect document s from field facilities and o r
other locations.
ii. Search for and collect and ex amine voluminous amount of
records.
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iii. Consult with another agency havi ng a substantial interest in
the request.
iv. Compile data, write progr amming language or a computer
program, or to construct a compu ter report to extract data.
b. If the CPRA request seeks discl osable records, Professional
Standards shall respond to the re questor with the estimated dat e
and time when the records will be made available.
10. When the requested records have been compiled, they are to be sent to
the Professional Stand ards Division in an electronic format.
11. Upon receipt of the electronic records, the Professional St andards Division
will determine what records are to be produced in accordance wi th all
applicable laws.
12. The Professional St andards Division in c onjunction with cou nsel assigned
to Legal Affairs will prov ide the following:
a. Advice and a determination r egarding the statut ory requireme nts of
Government Code section 6250, et seq., the California Public
Records Act.
b. Advice and a determination i f records requested are exempt f rom
disclosure under the CPRA.
c. Advice and a determination if the records requested are
controversial or involve sensitive matters.
13. The Professional St andards Division will log those records into the PRA
System and will respond to the re questor through the PRA System .
14. If