Public records watch: City reports from private security contractors
Editor's note: The Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) 'enables access to public records of governmental entities in New Mexico,' according to the New Mexico Department of Justice. Public Records Watch is an occasional series from The Santa Fe New Mexican that documents how public agencies respond to IPRA requests.
The city of Santa Fe has provided some, but not all, of the records requested by The New Mexican more than six months ago related to the city's contracted security services.
The newspaper requested receipts, incident logs and reports, certificates of insurance, training manuals, policies and procedures and copies of the licenses of security guards authorized to patrol the streets, many of them armed. The Santa Fe City Council approved a measure in August to allocate $750,000 for a contract with Condor Security of America for the company's services in downtown Santa Fe.
So far, the city has provided receipts and invoices for payments through November, the company's contract, post orders and some incident logs filed by security guards who patrolled the Railyard area last year. Incident reports, training materials, guard licenses and policies and procedures have not been provided.
City records staff closed the request in January without providing any incident logs or reports from the first six months of the downtown security program, but the request was reopened after an inquiry into whether any such logs or reports have been filed, as is laid out in the contract.
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