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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Ind. Gov't. - Evansville must release the reason a police officer is suspended or fired to comply with state open records law

Jennifer Whitson of the Evansville Courier& Press reports today, in a story headlined "Discipline action to be public: State says 'factual basis' of police discipline is necessary; attorney says city will comply," that:

Indiana's public access counselor advised the city of Evansville that it must release the reason a police officer is suspended or fired to comply with state open records law.

Counselor Karen Davis sent the message in an informal decision mailed Thursday. Davis said state law requires any public agency to give a "factual basis" of any firing, suspension or demotion of a public employee. * * *

The opinion came in response to a request from the Courier & Press, the city of Evansville and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 73. A Courier & Press reporter requested the disciplinary records for an officer and was given only the dates - not the reasons - for the officer's suspensions.

Instead of taking the matter to court, all parties agreed to submit a question to the public access counselor and abide by her decision. The matter was slightly complicated by a contract signed between the city and the police union in which the city promised not to release any personnel records without the express consent of an officer.

In earlier ILB entries on this story, from 8/31/05 and 9/5/05, I have expressed my concern that "that informal opinions of the Public Access Counselor (PAC) (which, along with the Counselor's formal opinions, are of course public records) are not readily accessible to the public." It seems to me ironic that such a problem of access would exist in the office of the Public Access Counselor.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 17, 2005 08:53 AM
Posted to Indiana Government