Request By:
Hon. Bert T. Watts
Meade County Judge/Executive
Meade County Courthouse
Brandenburg, Kentucky 40108
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
The Meade County Messenger, through its attorney, Honorable Jon L. Fleischaker, has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of access to the Meade County Dispatch Service log maintained at the courthouse. You denied this request by a letter dated January 18, 1982, relying on a letter to you from the County Attorney, Honorable Danny E. Darnall, dated January 16, 1982. Mr. Darnall gave his opinion that the Dispatch Service log was exempt from the mandatory requirement of public disclosure under the Open Records Law by KRS 61.878(1) for the following reasons:
"1. The dispatch log contains information which if prematurely released would impede effective law inforcement (OAG 76-633).
2. The dispatch log contains information which could reveal a confidential informant who might be working with the police; furthermore, it also contains information which may be used in prospective law enforcement action (OAG 76-424).
3. The dispatch log contains information of a personal nature which if disclosed could subject the county, as a public agency, to possible liability for invasion of privacy (OAG 76-424)."
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that the log of the Meade County Dispatch Service is a public record which should be made available for public inspection and that the items in the log are not exempt under KRS 61.878 for the reasons stated in Mr. Darnall's letter as quoted above. Particularly, Meade County has no exposure to liability for invasion of privacy because it enjoys sovereign immunity.
In our past opinions on the Open Records Law we have never held that any of the items which are included in the dispatch log may be considered as falling under one of the exemptions of mandatory disclosure except we have said that we believe that the identity of persons transported by a public ambulance could be kept confidential out of respect for the privacy rights of the transportees. (OAG 76-568). In OAG 76-424 we said that there is no right of privacy as far as police logs are concerned and that the police blotter or incident report should be open for public inspection. (OAG 77-102). We see no reason why the runs of the sheriff's office and the fire department should be confidential.
We would point out that there is a difference between a dispatch log and investigative reports containing evidentiary matter which may be used in a prosecution. Records of law enforcement agencies compiled in the process of detecting and investigating violations of the law may be withheld from public disclosure if they contain information which would harm the agency by revealing the identity of informants not otherwise known or by a premature release of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action. KRS 61.878(1)(f). Nothing in this provision would justify making an entire police log secret from the public. If any item in the log on a particular date is withheld from public disclosure because revealing the item would be harmful to law enforcement, the custodian has the burden of showing that the item is being properly withheld for that reason.
To clarify our position concerning ambulance runs, we have never said that it is required that the identity of the persons transported must be kept confidential. We have only said that an ambulance service may adopt a policy of not disclosing the identity of the transportees because we think the privacy rights of the individuals outweighs the public's need to know that particular information. We believe that the Meade County Dispatch Service can adopt a policy either to disclose the names of persons transported in the ambulance or a policy not to disclose the names.
It should be kept in mind that Kentucky has no privacy statutes and that the Open Records Law does not prohibit allowing inspection of records which are exempt from the mandatory disclosure requirement. The exceptions are permissive only, and a custodian of records is not exposed to any penalty if he allows inspections of records which could be withheld from inspection under one of the exceptions in KRS 61.878(1). We believe that a dispatch service may make its entire log open to public inspection or may have a policy of excluding from public inspection the names of ambulance transportees. All of the rest of this log should be open and copies should be provided for a reasonable fee when requested.