PAC Finds Police Department in Violation of FOIA for Withholding Police Report
In response to a FOIA request seeking a case report and related records for an incident, a municipal police department withheld responsive records from disclosure citing Section 7(1)(d)(i) of FOIA, which exempts records that would interfere with a pending or actually and reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law enforcement. The requestor then appealed the denial to the Public Access Counselor of the Attorney General's office (PAC).
In PAC Op. 24-011, the PAC issued a binding opinion concluding that the police department violated FOIA by entirely withholding its responsive records. Specifically, the PAC noted that the case report indicated the police department had administratively closed its investigation into this matter. The PAC rejected the police department's argument that this exemption was still valid because the department was assisting other law enforcement agencies with similar incidents involving a suspect matching the same description, motive, and vehicle, finding that the department did not provide a detailed factual basis explaining with specificity how disclosing its responsive records would interfere with those ongoing joint law enforcement investigative efforts.
The PAC ordered the department to release the records, but stated the department could redact names, identifying information, and details that might disclose the identity of an at-large suspect pursuant to the personal privacy and private information exemptions.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink
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