Opinion ID: 2959659
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The District’s Initial Production of

Text: Redacted Documents for In Camera Review On remand, the FOP confirmed that it was “not interested in obtaining the personal information of the disciplined MPD officers referenced in the subject disciplinary files,” and it agreed that the MPD should redact “names, the officer’s rank and district, home addresses, birth dates, social security numbers or other personal identifiers, and physical descriptions of individuals.” Even with such redactions, the FOP explained, “the officers’ conduct, facts surrounding the 4 District of Columbia v. Fraternal Order of Police Metro. Police Labor Comm., Nos. 09-CV-758, 09-CV-920 at 2 (Jan. 24, 2012) (citing Judge Ruiz’s concurring opinion in District of Columbia v. Fraternal Order of Police Metro. Police Labor Comm., 33 A.3d 332 (D.C. 2011)). 5 conduct, basis for the discipline, aggravating and mitigating factors considered, evidence included in the record or submitted at any hearing, and the actual discipline imposed will all be disclosed.” This information, the FOP proffered, would be useful in its efforts to “educate, prepare, and defend police officers who are faced with disciplinary action” and to “ensur[e] that the MPD disciplines officers in a consistent and just manner.” Pursuant to the court’s direction, to carry out our instructions on remand, the District submitted five sample disciplinary files, in both a redacted and an unredacted format, for in camera review. The files in this initial production comprised thousands of pages. The District provided the redacted set to the FOP as well. At a status hearing on June 22, 2012, the FOP confirmed that the redacted files were intelligible and of value to it. Nonetheless, it argued that the MPD had redacted more information than necessary to protect the unidentified officers’ anonymity and personal privacy. The FOP gave the court and the MPD a binder of pages from the five sample files displaying what it considered to be excessive redaction. In some instances, entire sentences or paragraphs had been blacked out. For its part, the court expressed the preliminary view that the MPD’s redactions 6 appeared to be generally reasonable, apart from some obviously inadvertent mistakes (which the District conceded). The court directed the parties to confer and try to agree on which redactions were appropriate. A month later, at the next status hearing, the parties reported having made progress, but some redactions in the five sample files were still in dispute.5 Stating that, in general, it found the MPD’s remaining redactions to have been reasonable, the court cautioned the District not to be “overly active in redacting” and urged the parties to continue working to resolve their outstanding disagreements. The District agreed to produce the rest of the disciplinary files covered by the FOIA request.