If you're a regular reader of this blog — And judging by the Web traffic, you're not. — you may remember this post from June.

The subject of that wayward Freedom of Information Act request was Bruce "Utah" Phillips. The FBI originally told me it did not have any files on Phillips at its Salt Lake City field office.

Then a couple weeks ago, a package from FBI record keepers in Virginia arrives on my desk. A file discussing Phillips was inside.

I called the FBI's FOIA hotline to ask why I received the earlier letter telling me nothing existed. A helpful gentleman at the hotline told me he did not know why the earlier letter was sent, but — hypothetically — the FBI may not have had a file on Phillips himself but did find references to Phillips in a different file.

That makes me want to request the entire file, a piece of which is found below.

— NC


PhillipsFBI.pdf

Labels: FBI, FOIA

Below you can find a PDF of the Gordon B. Hinckley FBI file. Here's what it took to get it:

I filed the Freedom of Information request the morning after Hinckley died. Such FBI files are supposed to become public upon the subject's death. (Check out the Evil Knievel file sometime.)

A few weeks later, FBI headquarters replied with a letter saying... You ready for this?... it needed proof Hinckley was dead!

My original letter included the URL for Hinckley's obituary in The Tribune, but apparently the house that J. Edgar Hoover built isn't so keen on 21st Century technology... or television or radio or large newspapers — all of which devoted coverage to Hinckley's death. Instead, the FBI instructed me to send a death certificate or a hard copy of an obituary.

Wanting to vent, I called the FBI office in Salt Lake City. The chief division counsel at the office (he had nothing to do with the letter from headquarters) was sympathetic and helpful. In passing, he mentioned: "We helped with security for the funeral."

So, to recap: The FBI wanted proof of death for someone whose funeral it attended.

I sent another request — this time with hard copies of some obituaries. From there, I called the FBI's FOIA processing center every few weeks inquiring about my request's status.

By the way, I learned last week The Tribune has other old FBI files dealing with various aspects of the LDS Church. I'm pushing for us to scan them and post them here on The Vault, just like the Hinckley file.

— NC

Hinckley-FBI.pdf

Labels: FBI, FOIA, LDS Church

Here's what makes a reporter happy: Having a record request finally pay off!




The file I'm holding is from the FBI. Zoom to read the subject line and you'll figure out why I'm particularly proud of this one.

The Tribune will publish an article about the contents this weekend.

— NC

Photo by Paul Fraughton of The Tribune staff

Labels: FBI, FOIA

This blog item caught my eye.

Bloggers' challenge: Why is Cache Valley so crime-free?

The Herald Journal in Logan asked the question, though it also seemed to be making a statement. I wondered how the newspaper came to that conclusion. I did some checking.

Both the state of Utah and the U.S. Department of Justice collect crime statistics and publish them. They do that so citizens can judge for themselves how safe their communities are.

Every police agency in the United States is supposed to follow guidelines for how to categorize and report crime but there can still be some variation in the quality of the reporting. For the purposes of this discussion, let's assume everyone reported crime the same way. Then let's consider the "Cache Valley" to be Cache County and compare it to other Utah counties.

County Population Crime Rate/1,000
San Juan County| 14,265 | 6.38
Emery CO SO | 10,698 | 10.75
Sanpete County| 24,196| 10.79
Juab County | 9,420| 11.04
Wasatch County| 20,255| 12.15
Daggett CO SO| 947| 13.73
Beaver County| 6,294| 13.82
Kane County| 6,532 | 15
Washington County| 126,312| 17.9
Cache County| 98,662| 19.41
Uintah County| 27,955| 22.07
Davis County | 276,259| 23.16
Box Elder County | 47,197| 23.37
Duchesne County | 15,701| 23.63
Rich CO SO | 2,040| 25
Utah County| 464,760| 25.82
Millard CO SO | 12,390| 25.91
Iron County | 40,544| 26.79
Sevier County | 19,640| 29.79
Carbon County | 19,469| 32.72
Summit County | 35,469| 34.45
Grand County| 8,999| 36
STATE TOTAL | 2,550,063 | 36.72
Weber County | 213,247| 44.64
Salt Lake County| 978,701| 53.78
Wayne CO SO | 2,544| 62.89

Nine other counties in the state reported lower crime rates than Cache County in 2006 — the last year for which there is complete data. (Morgan and Piute counties did not report complete data.) That neither proves nor disproves the newspaper's question, but at least you have some context.

Here's the complete report from the state of Utah. Below is a spreadsheet I created from the 2006 data compiled by the state.

-- nc

The badge and logo is from the Cache County Sheriff's Web page. I posted it only because I think mounted posses are cool.

UtahCrime2006

Labels: Crime, FBI

I guess I'm not the only one that has some problems obtaining records from the FBI.

But as I read this column from Alex Heard, I did more than cringe at the idea of losing valuable records. I also gained an appreciation for the complexity of keeping and organizing everything the FBI does.

There're records kept at FBI headquarters, in field offices across the country and at foreign embassies and consulates and, if Heard's valid point is realized, perhaps other storage facilities. Read the file below and notice how many places I sent the FBI probing when I was trying to find documents on the FLDS leaders.

When you're done reading the Heard column, do yourself a favor and check out the list of categories used to organize FBI files. Try not to giggle when you realize G-Men had to create a filing system for "Interstate Transportation of Lottery Tickets" and "Excess Profits on Wool."

-- nc

The photo illustration is borrowed from The Slate column by Heard. Rulon-FBI-files052207.pdf

Labels: FBI, FOIA

One of my first posts on this blog was about a problem I encountered while requesting records from the FBI. And so it goes again.

I have been trying to obtain old FBI files — if there are any — on a now deceased Utah figure. (I won't say who. I'm afraid of tipping off the competition, even though our Web site folks assure me hardly anyone reads this blog.)

Citing the Freedom of Information Act, I filed a records request with the FBI field office in Salt Lake City. The office forwarded my request to headquarters in Washington, D.C., and within in a couple weeks — quick turnaround in the FOI world — I received a response. There were no responsive records in Salt Lake City.

OK, fair enough. But my subject also lived in California. What records are there?

I filed a request with the FBI field office in Sacramento on Thursday. Friday I received a phone call from that field office. An FBI agent told me that I needed to send that request to Washington, D.C.

Wait a minute. The Salt Lake City field office accepts my requests, I said. Why can't your office?

The agent told me the bureau's FOIA guidelines say requests should be sent to headquarters. He was polite but firm on this topic. He suggested my written request say ask the FBI to look for records in Sacramento — where I already sent a request.

— NC

Labels: FBI, FOIA

Today's article about the old FBI investigation into the FLDS leadership relied on documents I acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. But the acquisition didn't go smoothly.

In January, 2007, I made my first request to the FBI asking for their files on LeRoy S. Johnson and Rulon T. Jeffs, two former prophets of the FLDS. They've been dead for years and files maintained by the federal government usually are subject to disclosure once the subject dies. (Check out the list of famous corpses in the FBI reading room.)

On March 29, 2007, I received a letter from the FBI saying it had no files on Johnson. Then, less than a month later, I received a telephone call from the FBI employee processing my request for Jeffs' files. She told me that in searching for Jeffs documents, she found pages discussing Johnson. The employee sounded annoyed that no one had found them earlier.

The first batch of documents arrived in July. The FBI redacted some names and omitted entire pages because they were concerned with violating the privacy of the people who are still alive. In some cases, the government said, papers had been destroyed years ago. But I used the information in the documents to make additional requests. I asked for the entire files referenced in the information about Johnson and Jeffs.

The back-and-forth continued until January, when the U.S. Department of Justice claimed it had no more documents it could give me. In all, I received a couple hundred pages.

-- nc

Labels: FBI, FOIA, Polygamy

Never mind trying to get documents and records from the government. How about giving me the right phone number?

Recently, I tried to check the status of two record requests I have pending with the FBI. I called the phone number for the FOIA Requester Service Center.

A gentlemen answered the phone and said I called the records management division. Things went awry from there.

This is not the phone number I should call to check on the status of my requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the man said.

So if that number is wrong, where should I call?

"I don't know, sir," was the reply.

The next day, FBI Public Liaison Nancy L. Steward called and was helpful in updating me on the status of my requests. Then I told her about what happened when I called the service center.

Steward called back again and said another section had someone incorrectly using the service center phone line. She said the problem would be fixed. I called the service center line on Monday and was able to check my request this time.

If you want to check on the status of your FOIA request to the FBI, the service center's telephone number is 540-868-4591. Steward's number is 540-868-4516.

— NC

Labels: FBI, FOIA