Seattle IT Department Blocks Pathway To Obtain ICE Records

Seattle's Information Technology Department (ITD) is making it more difficult for the public and journalists to track federal law enforcement coordination with the Seattle Police Department (SPD).

Earlier this year, HardPressed reported that SPD assisted ICE as they worked to deport a college student. That followed reporting showing that SPD was fast-tracking ICE's requests for records.

HardPressed has also reported that a FBI Seattle domestic terrorism squad is investigating the city and today HardPressed reported that an FBI agent was arrested for DUI.

All of these news reports have one thing in common; the seed of each story was obtained through a public records request to the ITD, not SPD.

ITD recently told HardPressed they were shutting this info pathway down.

To understand all of this, you need to understand how information is exchanged between federal law enforcement and SPD.

In cases where a joint investigation is ongoing with federal law enforcement, records of that case will likely reside with the federal agency. Contractually, that is the agreement that local police departments sign over and over and over and over again with the FBI.

However, when a federal law enforcement agency is working on their own case, without SPD, and they want information from SPD, the agency will submit a request for records through SPD's GovQA online portal.

GovQA itself is a city technology deployment, so technically, Seattle ITD and SPD both have access to all records created within the GovQA interface.

When you look at SPD's pattern and practice of delays, internal discipline, destruction of records, and violations of the Washington State public records act, a savvy requestor will opt to submit their request to ITD.

However, in July, ITD told HardPressed that it was closing a request for GovQA data without providing any records.

When HardPressed appealed, and pointed to an earlier, identical request for GovQA data that had been fulfilled by ITD without issue, the department wrote that "the City maintains its discretion to determine which department/staff is most appropriate to fulfill a request."

"Requests are processed by the department that creates or uses the types of records you seek in the course of their substantive work," ITD wrote to HardPressed. "This helps ensure fullest assistance on all requests without damage to or disorganization of records and prevents excessive interference with other essential agency functions."

The city's "fullest assistance" has resulted in months of delays by passing the request from ITD to SPD. HardPressed's latest request for GovQA data has sat unfulfilled by SPD since July.