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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Ind. Gov't. - More on: Police charge too much for incident reports; ILB asks what about crash reports?
Updating this ILB entry from May 24, 2009, which is worth reading again, today Dan Stockman of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an article on the fees charged for "police reports," and the lack of a culture of openness in Indiana state and local agencies.
And the name shouldn't matter: "police reports," "incident reports," "accident reports," "crash reports." These are all public records, and the same rules -- and minimal copying fees -- should apply.
Then there are the problematic "investigatory records," the subject of a FWJG story March 18th - ILB entry here. Jeff Wiehe wrote:
Except for the required daily disclosure of basic information on suspected crimes, traffic crashes and complaints, Indiana law enforcement agencies can label police reports, videos, 911 recordings and other records as “investigatory” and withhold them from public view indefinitely.Defined simply as “information compiled in the course of the investigation of a crime,” investigatory records can be almost anything.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 21, 2010 01:41 PM
Posted to Indiana Government