HCPSS MPIA Request #2023-117

Responsive to this request, no comprehensive list is collected regarding specific police responses to schools to include the number of officers who responded. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Seventeenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new records or summarize data. Briefing reports used by schools to inform administration of incidents will often note whether the matter required police involvement, however they would require review of each individual report to determine responsiveness and creation of a new record to pull data on such incidents.

An available record we are providing with this response is the below list reflecting calls to the HCPSS Office of Security to report security-related incidents by date, school, and incident type, and includes those where the emergency response personnel involved was noted as HCPD as well as incidents further identified by staff as likely to include police response given only one category is entered per call. Please note, both briefing forms and this record are used internally for purposes of notification of relevant staff and not a means of formally tracking all such incidents. Under MPIA GP § 4-352, which indicates an agency may deny inspection of response procedures or plans prepared to prevent or respond to emergency situations, the disclosure of which would reveal vulnerability assessments, specific tactics, specific emergency procedures, or specific security procedures, and where inspection may endanger the life or physical safety of an individual, HCPSS has withheld event descriptions to include the reason for the response.

For reference, while HCPSS has provided calls for service to the Howard County Police Department (HCPD) for HCPSS middle schools previously under MPIA 2021-187, those were in the possession of HCPSS for a review at the time, however, no such reports have been received by HCPSS Security beyond those years and schools. These could be requested from HCPD as the custodian of such records if they have available. You can find information about submitting an MPIA request to HCPD at this site: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/PIA.