Office of Information Practices

U Memo 25-01
July 19, 2024
Reasonable Search for Video and
Inmate Personal Property Records

Requester sought, among other things, video footage just before his son’s death at Hawaii Community Correctional Center (HCCC), and his son’s personal property records.  On appeal, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) clarified that his request for the video and personal property records were denied because it no longer maintained the requested video and personal property records at the time of the request. 

When a requester contests an agency’s response to a record request by stating that no responsive record exists, OIP will generally examine whether the agency’s search for a responsive record was reasonable.  OIP Op. Ltr. No. 97-8 at 4-6.  A reasonable search is one “reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents,” and an agency must make “a good faith effort to conduct a search for the requested records, using methods which can be reasonably expected to produce the information requested.”   Id. at 5 (citations omitted). 

OIP found that DCR staff conducted a reasonable search for the requested property records in locations where the responsive record would likely have been found but no responsive records were located.  OIP further found that DCR had actual knowledge that HCCC, a jail under the jurisdiction of DCR, did not maintain the requested video surveillance footage at the time of the record request and that it had been destroyed before the record request was made.  OIP therefore concluded that DCR’s response that the requested surveillance video and personal property records do not exist was proper under section 271-14(c), Hawaii Administrative Rules, and the UIPA.