The Complainant alleged the Johnston Police Department ("Police Department") violated the APRA when it failed to respond to his April 22, 2015 APRA request. The APRA states that each public body shall establish written procedures regarding access to public records. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3(d). The APRA procedures must include the identification of a designated public records officer or unit, how to make a public records request, and where a public records request should be made. Id. The Police Department's APRA procedures designate its Records Division as the public records unit and explicitly states that APRA requests can be mailed or hand delivered to the Records Division. The Complainant emailed his APRA request to the Chief of Police's Administrative Assistant at her personal "Yahoo" email address. Since the Complainant's April 22, 2015 email request did not comport with the Police Department's APRA procedures, we found no violation.
