Request By:
Major Bobby Stallins
Official Custodian of Records
Kentucky State Police
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Cicely D. Jaracz, Assistant Attorney General
David L. Mirkin, attorney, has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of his request to inspect certain documents in your possession as official custodian of records for the Kentucky State Police. Specifically, Mr. Mirkin requested to inspect "all documents and reports regarding the shooting and death of Roger Gentry in Hawesville, Kentucky on July 17, 1983, including those reports prepared by Henderson State Police Post and the State Police Internal Affairs Office."
Your denial of inspection was based on KRS 61.878 (1)(f) which exempts inspection "if the disclosure of information would harm the agency . . . by premature release of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action or administrative adjudication. " You also indicate that the records requested are still active files and will be until final adjudication is made.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that your denial was proper under Kentucky Open Records law.
The records requested for inspection by Mr. Mirkin appear to constitute the entire case file concerning Roger Gentry's death, including police internal affairs reports. This office has held that while police incident reports are open to public inspection, case files are not open as long as the case is pending. OAG 79-387. Since you indicate that these are still active files, they are therefore not open to public inspection until prospective law enforcement action or administrative adjudication is complete or a decision is made to take no action. KRS 61.878(1)(f) provides that records exempted under this section are open after the decision to act or not to act is made. However, even after the case files are closed, certain documents may still be withheld from public inspection. These include information which will reveal a confidential informant, information of a personal nature, and information which may endanger the life of a police officer. OAG 76-424; KRS 17.150(2).
In any event, police internal affairs reports are exempt from public inspection as preliminary memoranda. OAG 82-630; 80-43; KRS 61.878(1)(h). Only internal affairs reports which indicate the final action taken and the underlying complaint are open to public inspection. OAG 82-547.
Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that your denial of inspection of the case files and internal affairs reports concerning the July 17, 1983 death of Roger Gentry in Hawesville, Kentucky was proper under Kentucky Open Records law, KRS 61.878(1)(f), (h) and KRS 17.150(2).
As directed by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester who may initiate further proceedings under KRS 61.880.