City of Seattle

Seattle Police Department

11-16-15

To Block Watch Captains

The City has received a request u nder the Washington Public Records Act, RCW Chapter 42.56 (PRA),
for public records h eld b y S PD including the names, addresses, home phone numbers, fax numbers,
email addresses, for the p ersons who h elped organize a Night Out party on their b lock in August of
2014, those who have signed up for this years program, and the 3,800 currently or formerly
registered with SPD as a Block Watch Captain or Contact. As we have these records, we are legally
obligated to d isclose some of them as required b y the Public Records Act.

When we get a Public Records Request, the City may withhold only that part of the public record to
which an exemption applies and must d isclose the rest. In this case the a pplicable exemption is
RCW 42.56.250(3), which exempts d isclosure of the residential addresses, telephone n umbers,
personal electronic mail addresses, social s ecurity numbers, and emergency contact information for
those members of Block Watch who may be contained in the above referenced records.

This exemption does not exempt the names of volunteers, such as Block Watch Captains. The City
must, therefore d isclose your name to the requestor, but the remaining contact information, such as
email address, residential address, and phone number, are not b eing released. The Public Records
Act states that it shall not b e construed as giving authority to anyone to give, s ell or provide access
to lists of individuals requested for commercial purposes, as such the requestor has b een required
to sign a d eclaration under p enalty of perjury s tating that h e will not use the list of names provided
in response to the request for commercial purposes.

I sincerely regret any concern this d isclosure may cause you, but we must comply with the law. We
are reviewing our policies and procedures regarding the information we collect to try to prevent this
type of disclosure from happening a gain. For more information p lease see the Citys Privacy
Program: http://www.seattle.gov/information-technology/privacy-program
Sincerely,
Asst/Chief Steve Wilske
Patrol Bureau Commander

Seattle Police Department, 610 Fifth Avenue, PO Box 34986, Seattle, WA 98124-4986
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