JAMES W. JOHNSON BALTIMORE COUNTY POLICE Chief of Police Headquarters 700 East Joppa Road Towson. MD 21286 (410) 887 - 2214 Fax (410) 821 - 8887 October 15, 2015 Courtney Mabeus 100 Knight Hall College Park, Maryland 20740 Sent via electronic mail also Dear Ms. Mabeus, The Legal Section has received your follow up request for the Baltimore County Police Department (hereinafter the ?Department?) to reconsider releasing documents relating to use logs and purchase information for cell site simulators used by the Department. Maryland law gives a records custodian the discretion in determining if a disclosure would be contrary to public interest when an exemption is applicable to a public record. This requires a careful balance between the possible consequences of disclosure against the public interest in favor of disclosure. See 64 Opinions of the Attorney General 236, 242 (1979). As supported by the information that you provided to me through email, the FBI believes that this technology is a vital tool in homeland security operations and disclosure of this technology could expose ways to subvert this investigative tool to terrorists and criminals alike. I believe that the threat of disclosing certain information concerning this device far outweighs the public interest in knowing when, where, and how this device is being used by law enforcement. With the amount of media attention on this issue, it is clear that the public is aware of the existence of this device, its related technology, and its basic purpose. To reveal speci?c details would serve no other goal but to eliminate the effectiveness of this tool. In speaking with our Criminal Intelligence Unit, the Department is willing to share the number of uses within a given time period. The Department would expect a fee to be paid in order to compile this information. Additionally, the Department is willing to release redacted purchase orders relating to your request. The fee for the purchase order documents would have to be received by this of?ce prior to producing the copies. Nationally Accredited Since 1984 JAMES W. JOHNSON BALTIMORE COUNTY POLICE Chief of Police Headquarters 700 East Joppa Road Towson, MD 21286 (410) 887 - 2214 Fax (410) 821 - 8887 Under Maryland Code, General Provisions Article 4-206, the custodian of records may charge a reasonable fee for the search, preparation, and copying of a public record. Your request has exceeded two hours of search and preparation to date. This fee must be the actual cost of the response, which is calculated by prorating my salary by the actual time that I have spent handling your request. To date, I have spent 3.5 hours on your request. The purchase order documents are twenty (20) pages in which I have spent one (1) hour reviewing and redacting, in response to your request. Therefore the fee for copies is prorated at my hourly salary rate of $43.75. If you wish to receive copies of the redacted purchase orders, please send a check or money order in the amount of $43.75 to: Baltimore County Police Department Attn: Legal Section, 9th Floor 700 East Joppa Road Towson, Maryland 21286 If you Wish to receive the number of times that the device has been used by the Department, please respond via email and the Legal Section will determine the fee in ful?lling this part of your request. Due to the concerns stated in our September 9th letter and reasons stated above, the Department will not release any logs at this time. The Department does maintain a computer database detailing each request and/or deployment. Due to the log being contained within a computer database, I am not able to provide a Vaughn Index. The log is maintained on a computer system within the Criminal Intelligence Unit of the Police Department. Under Maryland Code, General Provisions Article (hereinafter ?4-3 62, you are entitled to seek judicial review of this decision. You have the option to ?le a complaint with the Public Information Act Compliance Board concerning the amount of the fee charged, see GP lA-Ol et seq., and may also refer any concerns about this decision to the Public Access Ombudsman pursuant to GP et seq. Please feel free to contact me at with any questions. Nationally Accredited Since 1984