This editorial appears in today's Paducah Sun. It's author, WPSD Local 6 news director Perry Boxx, shares the Kentucky Open Government Coalition's concern that HB 273, and it's Senate counterpart, SB 130, represent a serious threat to the open records law and the public's right to know.

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An obstacle to the truth

When the Kentucky Legislature reconvenes on Monday for the second half of its "short session," lawmakers will be tinkering again with the Open Records Law. You likely haven't heard a lot about House Bill 273, already passed and gone to the Senate, or Senate Bill 130, a duplicate bill already committee-assigned and pending.

At first glance, the companion bills may seem a noble endeavor to protect crime victims and their families.

The legislation adds another exception to the Open Records law authorizing public agencies to deny the public access to "photographs or videos that depict the death, killing, rape, or sexual assault of a person." The Kentucky Open Government Coalition calls this "a solution looking for a problem." The current law already supports the privacy interest of victims and their families.

Inadvertently or not, this new exception empowers official corruption and misconduct. Public agencies will be prohibited from releasing bystander and surveillance videos taken in to evidence.

Think of the death of George Floyd. Consider surveillance video of misconduct or neglect resulting in death in any public or private building you care to name. The elderly woman who falls in the dangerously slick hallway at City Hall minutes after a worker moves the warning sign. The inspector who blatantly ignores the illegal construction that minutes later collapses on someone. The prison guard who enters a cell and sexually assaults an inmate. Kentucky doesn't need an impediment to inspection of video or photo records that hold public officials and employees accountable. Kentucky doesn't need any more obstacles to the truth.

Two western Kentucky lawmakers are responsible for the legislation.

Rep. Chris Freeland of Benton introduced the bill in the House. Sen. Danny Carroll of Paducah introduced the bill in the Senate. Freeland says he did so because early in the 2018 Marshall County High School shooting case there was concern about release of a video of the shooting. He expressed concern about more trauma for the families of the murdered students. Media accounts have quoted Freeland as characterizing the bill as, "a way to protect families."

Any decent person shares concern for the families. Any decent person agonizes over the pain they continue to suffer. No decent person wants anything but comfort and peace for those families and those of the Heath murders so many years ago.

In 45 years, I have never known any journalist who would ask for or broadcast the images of such a terrible thing.

The open government coalition says Freeland twice said the legislation would apply only to video and photos, "in the possession of the courts." That does not appear to be the case. The word "court" doesn't even appear in the amendment. It wouldn't matter if it did. The Kentucky Supreme Court in 1978 ruled in language that no one in government or law can misunderstand, "the custody and control of the records generated by the courts in the course of their work are inseparable from the judicial function itself, and are not subject to statutory regulation." Put simply, that means no one can tell the courts what they can or cannot do with their own records.

This is not the first time the legislature has headed down this path. In 1992, the late Sen. Walter Baker wanted an exception to open records access for ALL police and criminal investigation files. It was a western Kentucky lawmaker who stopped that. Paducah's legendary Albert Jones, then a state representative, according to an article in The Paducah Sun archives, said, "You'll never know what happened … How would you ever know if the police goofed up?" Mr. Jones you'll recall had previously been a prosecutor.

Albert Jones was among the legislators who helped empower citizens of the commonwealth with one of the most powerful and respected public access laws in the country. Those who knew him say he would urge more thought before adopting the proposed amendment in to law.

Today's lawmakers should "act like Albert."

The legislation is "fast tracked." It was introduced in both bodies for simultaneous consideration. The House is a few days ahead of the Senate.

As well intentioned as Freeland and Carroll may be, it's time to slow this thing down.

The commonwealth, like the country, needs a calm, reasoned and passion-free, factual approach to governance. Freeland's bill has already passed. Carroll's shouldn't come out of committee. The legislation is not good for the people of Kentucky.

Perry Boxx is the news director of WPSD Local 6. You can reach him at pboxx@wpsdlocal6.com.