We continue our series of the Top Ten open government stories of 2020 with numbers 5 and 4: law enforcement agencies and the General Assembly.
#5 — Law enforcement evasion of the open records law is exposed.
The fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor on March 13 focused attention on law enforcement agencies’ entrenched practice of obstructing access to public records and ignoring black letter law which mandates disclosure under well-defined circumstances. Investigations surrounding her case were shrouded in secrecy, precipitating a number of open records lawsuits between the Courier Journal and Louisville Metro.
Other incidents raised public awareness of the lengths to which law enforcement agencies will go to avoid accountability.
- On March 24, WDRB sued Louisville Metro Police Department for its refusal to disclose the names of officers under investigation for misconduct relating to “an alleged alcohol and sex party at the homicide unit” in 2019.
- In June, WBKO announced that the Kentucky State Police refused to disclose records relating to a Glasgow man, Jeremy Marr, who died in police custody after he was apprehended for allegedly burglarizing a home.
- In August, The State Journal obtained a favorable ruling from the attorney general in an open records appeal involving access to the initial report in KSP’s investigation of the non-fatal police shooting of a Frankfort resident. KSP did not appeal the ruling but refused the newspaper’s demand for the record until late December.
- October witnessed Louisville Metro’s delayed release of heavily redacted copies of the disciplinary records relating to the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.
- And on Christmas Eve, the Courier Journal sued LMPD for willfully concealing 750,000 records in the Explorer Scout sex abuse case. Because it involves allegations that officials lied about the existence of responsive records at the time of the original request and subsequently removed the records to avoid full disclosure, this is, perhaps, the most disturbing of all of these incidents.
In November, WDRB aired a scathing report on its three year battle to obtain investigative records relating to four state troopers “caught in illegal steroid operations.”
Within days of the report, KSP hired a former assistant attorney general and open records/meetings staffer to advise on open records matters and improve compliance. She was hired into a non-merit position subordinate to KSP’s general counsel. With two strikes against her, her prospects for making meaningful change are uncertain.
It is unclear what, if any, steps Louisville Metro has taken to address the problem of pervasive secrecy.
#4 — Legislative assaults on the public’s right to know continue.
In a pattern that has now become familiar, lawmakers began the 2020 legislative session with multiple bills abridging existing rights of public access under the open records law.
These included proposed restrictions on access to “gruesome” photographs and videos depicting certain violent acts or scenes (HB 174); public defender litigation files (HB 443); police pursuit policies (HB 298); laws “clarifying” retirement systems’ secrecy relative to investment manager fees (SB 219); and laws placing control of the timing and release of actuarial analyses of pension bills in the presiding officers of the House and Senate or the LRC director (HB 194, House Floor Amendment 1) rather than the retirement systems.
All, mercifully, were unsuccessful.
2020 ended with Rep. John Blanton’s 2021 pre-filed bill aimed at excluding the first and last names of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers — and related personal information — in any and all public records from the open records law, criminalizing dissemination of the information, and requiring the redaction of the information in publicly accessible agency records systems (RS BR 985).
Not an auspicious beginning to the 2021 legislative session.
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