This is a recurring problem in Kentucky. In the face of overwhelming legal authority mandating disclosure of disciplinary records relating to public employees, including law enforcement officers, state and local agencies continue to resist disclosure.

This was one of the underlying issues in recent cases involving public agency employees' and officials' misconduct at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Finance Cabinet, the Labor Cabinet, the Transit Authority of River City (TARC), and the Lexington Fire Department.

The law is clear on the issue. The public has a right to know when public servants have breached the public trust. Law enforcement officers are invested with that trust to an even greater extent.

The 2019 legislative session witnessed an attempt to make the disciplinary records of law enforcement officers (along with several other categories of public employees) confidential. To his credit, the bill's sponsor withdrew that portion of his bill (which ultimately failed) in the face of overwhelming opposition.

But the threat continues to loom. Lawmakers do not shrink from secreting new exceptions to the public's right of access in unrelated bills and securing their passage through surreptitious means.

The same proposal might well be introduced in the next legislative session—along with numerous others that pose a serious threat to the public's right to know.