June 19, 2005

Blooming Grove Police Chef fires back at FOIL Findings

Blooming Grove police Chief Carl Schupp has a beef with the Times Herald-Record. Schupp says the Record misrepresented its findings of a records access audit conducted in April.      In the audit, the Record sent journalism students from SUNY New Paltz and Mount Saint Mary College to 61 school districts, police departments, and town and village halls across the Hudson Valley. The students requested documents under the state's records access law, known as the Freedom of Information Law.     Police departments were asked to provide their blotters for a specified weekend. In the case of Blooming Grove, the student auditor wrote that police were "confrontational" and "asked a lot of questions with no results."    On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest score, the student gave the department a ranking of one.    Schupp has a problem with that. He says the student was not confronted but was asked some specific questions to help narrow the scope of her request.    He points out that when the records were produced days later, the student was notified that they were ready, but she never picked them up.    He said the students brought their own biases about police to the FOIL audit, which colored their impressions.    He's now fired off a FOIL of his own to SUNY New Paltz.    In his May 26 request, Schupp wants to know, among other things, the number of students who participated in the audit and whether they received college credit for their participation.    Schupp said he had not heard back from the college. The records access officer at SUNY New Paltz said Friday that her office had not received his letter.

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