A letter was recently mailed to Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) Permit Holders in Contra Costa County informing them that their names and city location were released after a Public Records Request by ABC7 News.
The sheriff’s office did decline a portion of ABC7’s full request by objecting to releasing the home address of any permit holder based within accordance of the law.
According to Nate McCormack, Lieutenant with the Sheriffs Office, he cited safety and privacy concerns as to why addresses were not released.
“We try and balance the needs of the public and the people who want or need access to the information to ensure everyone’s safety,” said McCormack.
McCormack says that currently, the county has 317 CCW permits issued with 290 of them being to regular citizens. He also added that 17% of all applicants are approved.
He explained that they have a process which is followed and before it even gets to the Sheriff, an applicant must have good reason in their “cause statement” to be issued a CCW. They also most pass Department of Justice Clearance. An application must pass those two check points before it even reaches the sheriffs desk for a decision.
For example, a felon would not even make it through the first check point.
According to the Sheriffs own Conceal Carry License Permit Process, the process to obtain a CCW License includes:
- completing the standard California Department of Justice application
- Live Scan (electronic fingerprinting)
- formal interview
- training
- collection of license fees
- in some cases psychological testing may be required
Below is a copy of the letter sent out by the Sheriffs Office on February 6, 2017.
*Editors Note — We have withheld the name & address of the CCW Holder in the copy of the letter we received.
Dear_____:
The Office of the Sheriff has received a California Public Records Request Act from ABC7 News for the disclosure of all CCW permit holders’ names and home addresses from January 1, 2011 to date. The provisions of statutory and decisional law mandates most information contained in CCW applications and permits are subject to public disclosure. The law specifically allows for limited exceptions to public disclosure include the home addresses of permit holders employed in certain occupations, including judges, court commissioners or magistrates, deputy district attorney’s and peace officers. Names of CCW permit holders are not except from public disclosure.
In compliance with the law, the Office of the Sheriff will soon be releasing your name and city of residence as a CCW permit holder in response to the ABC7 News request. CCW permit holders in the above occupations will not have their city of residence released. The office of the Sheriff has declined to release the home address of any permit holder, regardless of occupation, in accordance with our interpretation of statutory and decisional law. The Office of the Sheriff understands you may have well founded concerns about your privacy, including release of your home address, and the Office of the Sheriff intends to protect this privacy in balance with its obligation to comply with the law regarding public records. If, in the future, the Office of the Sheriff is in receipt of information which indicates our position on the non-disclosure of CCW holders addresses cannot be legally justified, we will be forced to release your address unless there is a qualifying statutory exception as described above.
Please contact me at (925) 335-1517 or [email protected] or my supervisor, Lieutenant Nate McCormick at (925) 335-1522 or at [email protected] if you have questions.
Sincerely,
David O. Livingston, Sheriff-Coroner
Peter Enea, Specialist
Professional Standards Division
