Records reveal that LRPD has subscribed to and utilized a cloud based document storage system for the past 17 years - A system that could be used to easily provide FOI responses to citizens

Russ Racop - Snarky Media Group

 

For the past 17 years LRPD has subscribed to and utilized a cloud based document storage system. 

This cloud based document system could have and can be used to share records with the public, records like those we frequently request from LRPD under the Arkansas Freedom of Freedom of Information Act. 

For some time now we at Snarky Media Group (Ean Lee Bordeaux and myself) along with attorney and fellow blogger Matt Campbell  have led the battle to force the city of Little Rock and the Little Rock Police Department to comply with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act 9"AFOIA") and provide requested public records.

More often than not they do not want to comply and we have to file lawsuits to force them to provide the requested public records. 

For example, in 2018 we had to sue the city and LRPD to force them to comply with the AFOIA and provide  photographs of all uniformed and plain clothed non under cover cops. 

That same year we had to sue them again to force them to comply with the AFOIA and provide documents  maintained by LRPD to record and track AFOIA requests submitted to LRPD and documents regarding cops asking for and receiving permission to post photos on their social media pages in uniform or showing them working as a LRPD cop (at that time they had a police that prohibited such unless permission had been obtained from the LRPD chief). 

As expected, the courts ruled that these were public records and ordered the city and LRPD to provide them to us. 

Back in 2018, LRPD decided to charge for providing responses to FOI requests like the one we made.

 

 

As mentioned in the Arkansas Times article, Matt Campbell was getting the same push back from the city and LRPD that we were.

Campbell found that LRPD was actually paying less that $.50 for the CD's they were charging $3.00 to citizens.  A clear violation of the AFOIA.

Here's what he published on his Blue Hog Report:

 

Well, LRPD has never made us pay for any of the CD's or DVD's they used to provide requested public records to us.

LRPD simply wanted to erect a barrier to keep public records of our hands. Public records that exposed how corrupt and inept LRPD was and continues to be.

The next barrier shortly the city and LRPD attempted to erect was this one:

Pulaski County and many state agencies have provided responses to FOI requests by uploaded records and audio/video files to a cloud based system (Dropbox or SharePoint) prior to 2018.

Attempts to get the city of Little Rock and LRPD to follow suit has proved fruitless.

However the law is clear (Pulaski County Special School District v. Delaney, 2019 Ark. App. 210), if an individual makes a request for records under the AFOIA and asks for them to be provided in electronic format (PDF, MS Word or Excel, etc.) and emailed to the requestor, and the public agency has the capability to scan the records and has email, they must provide the records in that manner. 

So we were surprised to have obtained records that revealed that LRPD has had the capability to upload records to the cloud and provide them at no charge to individuals for the last 17 years.

This information will no doubt be used by Campbell in a pending lawsuit against the city of LR/LRPD. 

While we are on the topic of FOI lawsuits involving the city of LR/LRPD, we must point out another one that opened up access to public records. That case is Ben Motal v. City of Little Rock, 2020 Ark. App. 308.

LRPD like every other law enforcement agency in the state can charge $10.00 for a copy of an accident report Ark. Code Ann. 27-53-210). 

The Motal case resulted in the Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that an individual can copy public records, even accident reports,  at no cost by using their own devices. 

Another recent action that bolsters free access to public records in Arkansas is an update to the AFOIA that occurred this year.

Act 310 amended the AFOIA to allow a citizen to inspect and copy a public record, thorough image capture, including still and moving photography and video and digital recording.

The legislature has made it crystal clear that a citizen can use their own devices or equipment to copy public records. 

Any agency that denies a citizen that right does so at its on risk for civil and criminal penalties. 

 ###

 

The PowerDMS system can easily be used by LRPD to share documents.

Click here for details.

 

 

The PowerDMS system can easily be used by LRPD to share video files. 

Click here for details.

 

 

By fully utilizing the system that LRPD has utilized the last 17 years, they can easily comply with the AFOIA and provide records in electronic format and email links to the requestor for viewing and downloading.

 ###

LRPD says they can't provide videos directly to citizens making FOI requests via the cloud or links. Records reveal that they have been doing exactly that to criminal defense attorneys.

 

LRPD uses the WatchGuard system for MVR - mobile video recorder- in vehicles and for body cameras.

Anyone can download the WatchGuard player from their website or use VLC media player to view videos created with that system.

https://watchguardvideo.com/software/player

 

Little Rock Mayor lies about membership of the Committee to Rebuild the Rock

www.rebuildtherock.com

On July 23rd, a local paper ran a story about the "Rebuild the Rock" sales tax initiative and quoted the feckless Little Rock mayor about members of the group pushing the tax and funding efforts to promote it.

The mayor told the paper that there were five members of that group.

That was a lie. There are actually six members listed on the required form submitted to the Arkansas Ethics Commission, and the mayor is the sixth member.

Why would he lie about something like that? 

Perhaps it's a conflict of interest and possibly illegal.

You can see that a flyer the group has mailed out looks exactly like the city of Little Rock's own web page. 

You will notice that the URL for the group is listed as www.RebuildTheRock21.com.

They have to use that URL because WE own the domains named RebuildTheRock.

Check it out: RebuildTheRock

 

 

The use of the phrase RebuildTheRock is problematic for several reasons (more on that in another post) as the city uses the same graphics as the LQC group does.

 

 

The city and the LQC using the same phrase and graphics is extremely problematic.

 

Generally, a local government is prohibited from expending funds in support or against a ballot measure.

 

source: https://www.arml.org/static/arml/Municipal_Law_in_Arkansas_FAQ_2019_05_WEB.pdf

 

According the the Arkansas Ethics Commission, the LQC is required to file a contribution and expenditure report by August 15th. We will be thoroughly examining that report. 

 

We have sent a FOI request to the city to obtain records regarding any document that reflects, mentions or concerns the phrase or term Rebuild the Rock.

 

More to follow.

LR Mayor welcomes bank with shady past and present to the city

The feckless LR mayor welcomed with open arms a bank that collaborated and supported the Third Reich and has been fined billions of dollars in fines and settlements.

Chase bank has also supported dictatorships in Cuba,  Sudan, Liberia and Iran.

 

This is an example of the lack of concern the feckless mayor has for the plight of the ordinary man that is abused and manipulated by corrupt corporations like Chase.

Little Rock fireman Christian Burton arrested and charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography

LRFD fireman Christian Burton 

A complaint filed in federal court accuses Christian Burton, 35, of possession of child pornography with intent to view and receipt/distribution of child pornography.

A fire department spokesperson said Wednesday that Burton was arrested at work on July 2nd. He has been placed on administrative leave without pay.

 

 

A Little Rock police detective Amber Kalmer testified at a hearing July 12th that authorities found child pornography on Burton's phone and a photo that appeared to show his penis next to a sleeping boy.

Burton wanted to be released to his mother. But Judge Jerome T. Kearney rejected that idea and ordered him held in jail for the safety of the community.

 

Additional court filings indicate that there might be a witness, perhaps a child as Burton asked LRPD Detective Kalmer if a child had come forward.

 Burton's court appearance is set for August 23, 2021.

Hypocritical Pulaski County Judge bends over for LR mayor and police chief that defied his court order last year

Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Herbert T. Wright

 

In 2020 we filed four Arkansas Freedom of Information appeal from denial of rights lawsuits against the feckless Little Rock mayor and deadbeat police chief.

Two of the cases were assigned to Judge Wright and two were assigned to Judge Wendell Griffen.

Wright unsuccessfully tried to wrangle the two cases from Judge Griffen to no avail.

Initially,  Wright failed to follow the law and set the cases for a hearing within seven days of the petitions being filed.

We had difficulty getting Wright to set a date for the hearing and that necessitated that we file a motion for his recusal. 

That filing resulted in his setting a date for a hearing.

In that hearing the city attorney, Tom Carpenter, motioned that all four cases we filed be consolidated. This would require Judge Griffen to agree to step away from the two cases in his court (he didn't - more on those cases in another post).
 

Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter

So on March 3, 2020 the LR mayor and police chief appeared before Wright to answer for their refusal to turn over public records. 

 

 The first case involved copies of the non-exempt portions of each uniformed, plain clothed non-undercover LRPD officer's personnel record. 

According to records LRPD had previously provided to us, they had approximately 529 non-undercover cops. In response to our request for copies of personnel files, they only provided 79 files and closed the request. Hence our appeal.

Wright ordered the city to provide those records to us by the close of business on the next day, March 4, 2020.

The other case was not addressed at the hearing.

On March 4th, the city provided us with a thumb drive containing 432 personnel files all jumbled up in 18 PDF's.

 

Five of the files were duplicates of files in the initial 79 files provided out of 529 files. We raised our concerns with the city attorney about the missing 23 files.

On March 5, 2020, the city filed a notice of compliance with the court in which they admitted to have not provided all the records as ordered.

So on March 9, 2020 we filed a motion for contempt as the city had not provided all the records as ordered.

Then COVID-19 happened and the courts for all practical purposes shut down.

When the courts opened back up in 2021 we asked for a hearing on our motion for contempt and for a hearing on the second case.

Initially Wright wanted to have the hearing via Zoom. That was fine, but he wanted us to be present in the courtroom while the defendants and city attorney could call in from their office or home. That showed a bias and preferential  treatment for the defendants.

We objected.

After some additional court filings, Wright agreed to have all parties in his courtroom.

We must point out Wright's hypocrisy as he is a participating in a research project with Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR).

Here are some clips from the article about the project. The  article is titled "Fairness and Efficiency Are at the Forefront of Reforms in Pulaski County".

 

 

 

The treatment we received from Wright was anything but equitable or fair.

At the hearing today he found no problems with the defendants not being present and would not hold the mayor or police chief in contempt and dismissed the second case.

That second case involved LRPD permitting an individual to have access to records (videos) that they refused to provide to us.

The message Wright sent out today is that his court orders are not worth the paper they are written on.

But the jokes on him. 

We obtained all the records we asked for. We were given them last year.

In fact we almost skipped the hearing today. Wonder if he would have held us in contempt?