Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) Requests

After a FOIA request is received, it is reviewed by a member of the FOIA Officer.

You will receive a reply to your request within five business days. This reply may be one of the following five responses, which are outlined in Virginia Code 2.2-3704(B), part of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act:

1. The requested records are being entirely withheld. It is our responsibility to inform you of the volume of records (such as the number of pages) and their general subject matter. We also must cite the specific section of Virginia law that authorizes us, or mandates us, to withhold the records. 

2. The requested records are being provided in part and are being withheld in part. It is our responsibility to inform you of the specific section of Virginia law that authorizes us, or mandates us, to withhold the records. 

3. The requested records could not be found or do not exist. This response will be necessary in cases where no records are held by the City or the Norfolk Police Department, or when records have been lost or damaged, such as by fire or flood. However, if we learn that the records might be held by another public body, such as the Division of Motor Vehicles or the Virginia State Police, we will include contact information for the other public body in our response. 

4. It is not practically possible to provide the requested records or to determine whether they are available within the five-work-day period. If we require more time to complete the processing of your request, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act generally allows us to invoke an extension of seven business days. This is allowed if we invoke this extension within five business days after we have received your request. Our invocation of the extension will include one or more of several reasons allowed by the FOIA, such as a need for the records to be reviewed by a City attorney, or because the custodian of the requested records is out of the office. This response is necessary if, for example, the City staff member who holds the records is on vacation. 

5. If your request includes criminal investigative files as outlined in Virginia Code 2.2-3706.1, we will have 60 business days in which to provide a response to you.

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act requires that requesters identify the records they are seeking with “reasonable specificity.” If we can’t identify the records you are requesting, we may need to contact you to better understand what you are looking for. 

After you submit your request for records, it will be forwarded to the relevant department(s) to locate the records you seek and to determine the volume of those records and any costs associated with satisfying your request. You will be contacted about the availability of and/or provided with copies of the records in question.

Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the Norfolk Sheriff's Office (NSO) may assess reasonable charges for fulfilling a FOIA request, not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying and searching for the requested records, or developing a cost estimate. For more information on the costs that may be billed to you, please see below.

The Norfolk Sheriff's Office charges for records provided through the FOIA process in accordance with Title 2.2, Chapter 37 of the Code of Virginia. The Virginia Freedom of Information Act allows us to charge requesters for the actual costs of responding to FOIA requests. These allowable charges include staff time spent searching for and redacting exempt information from the requested records, copying costs, costs for discs or flash drives, or any other costs directly related to supplying the requested records. These costs cannot include general overhead costs. 

For example, if two NSO staff members work on a records request for one hour, the cost would be calculated based on each person’s hourly rate of pay. If one person earns $25 an hour, and the other person earns $15 an hour, the total cost for producing electronic records would be $40. 

If a requester asks for paper copies of documents or asks that the records be provided on a CD or flash drive, charges for those items are: 15 cents for each black-and-white copy; 25 cents for each color copy; $1 for each CD; and $10 for each flash drive, which holds 2GB of data. 

If we estimate that it will cost more than $200 to respond to your request, we may require you to pay a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before proceeding with your request. The total working days that we have to respond to your request does not include the time between when we ask for a deposit and when you respond. This deposit is based on an estimate only, and the final cost of production may be more or less than the deposit. If the final cost is less than the deposit, the balance will be returned to you. However, if the final cost is more than the deposit, the balance will be charged to you. 

You may request that we estimate in advance the charges for supplying records that you have requested. This will allow you to know about any costs up front or give you the opportunity to modify your request to try to lower the estimated costs. 

If you would like a cost estimate, please let us know promptly (before we provide a response to your request) by emailing us at: foia@norfolk-sheriff.com. If we do not hear from you promptly, we will continue to process your request, and you may be responsible for the charges incurred.

If you owe us money from a previous FOIA request that has remained unpaid for more than 30 days, NSO may require payment of the past-due bill before it will respond to your new FOIA request. 

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act requires us to post this statement:

 “A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the requested records and shall make all reasonable efforts to supply the requested records at the lowest possible cost. No public body shall impose any extraneous, intermediary, or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining records or transacting the general business of the public body. Any duplicating fee charged by a public body shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication. Prior to conducting a search for records, the public body shall notify the requester in writing that the public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for requested records and inquire of the requester whether he would like to request a cost estimate in advance of the supplying of the requested records as set forth in subsection F of § 2.2-3704 of the Code of Virginia.” 

Again - if you would like a cost estimate, please let us know promptly (before we provide a response to your request) by emailing us at: foia@norfolk-sheriff.com. If we do not hear from you promptly, we will continue to process your request, and you may be responsible for the charges incurred.

Certain police records, or portions of police records, are exempt from disclosure under Virginia Code 2.2-3706, which maintains that information contained in criminal investigative files and information on the identities of witnesses and victims, including 911 callers, are exempt from mandatory release under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. See the Code of Virginia § 2.2-3706 Disclosure of law-enforcement and criminal records and limitations for details. 

The FOIA law includes provisions that exempt other types of records, such as some city personnel information, any financial account information, personal information such as Social Security numbers, confidential tax information, confidential human services information, and legal advice given to the City under certain circumstances. You can find commonly cited FOIA exemptions from the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council:

https://foiacouncil.dls.virginia.gov/Applicability_Exemptions/Records_Exemptions.htm

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act requires that the following information related to employees of the Norfolk Sheriff's Office be released when requested: a person’s name, position, job classification, official salary, or (for hourly employees) rate of pay of, and information on any allowances or reimbursements paid to them. This applies to requests for information on individual employees and to requests for lists of multiple employees. To protect the privacy of Norfolk Sheriff's Office employees, no other personnel-related information is generally disclosed, including records of administrative investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by law enforcement. 

To protect the integrity of ongoing investigations, the Norfolk Sheriff's Office does not routinely release information included in investigative files. After a case is adjudicated or otherwise closed, other exemptions to information in the case file may apply. 

To protect the attorney-client privilege and attorney work product, the Norfolk Sheriff's Office withholds from release legal advice and work of its attorneys. 

To protect the financial interest of the agency, the Norfolk Sheriff's Office routinely withholds information relating to the negotiation and award of a specific contract where competition or bargaining is involved before the award of the contract. After the award, proprietary information and trade secret information is routinely withheld. 

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act does not require a governmental body to create records, to do legal research, or to answer questions about the records we might provide.