Request By:
Sergeant Paul Sologic
Staff Services Section
Ashland Police Department
Ashland, Kentucky 41101
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Jim Malone has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of his request to inspect and copy various documents in the custody of the Ashland Police Department.
In a document dated August 9, 1988, Mr. Malone made the following request: "Standing request to review APD uniform citations on a daily basis." He also challenged your provision whereby you stated that copies of documents would be provided at $2.00 per document.
You replied to Mr. Malone in a letter dated August 10, 1988, and advised him that his request was being denied. In support of your decision you cited KRS 17.150(2)(d). You further stated that the cost of copying documents has been reviewed and, "the fee has been adjusted to $ .25 per document plus any additional costs incurred due to the number of pages or the method of reproduction required."
In his letter of appeal to this office, dated August 11, 1988, Mr. Malone maintains that your decision relative to his request is incorrect. The citations are official documents which should be routinely available as they are not intelligence or investigative reports and they represent a decision to prosecute by a police agency.
The undersigned Assistant Attorney General talked with you by telephone on August 18, 1988, and you reiterated that access to the documents in question would be denied until legal proceedings have been terminated and the matters have been resolved in a court of law. When the legal proceedings end, the documents and all or most of the contents therein will be made available for public inspection by the police department.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
KRS 17.150(2)(d) provides as follows:
"Intelligence and investigative reports maintained by criminal justice agencies are subject to public inspection providing prosecution is completed or a determination not to prosecute has been made. However, portions of such records may be withheld from inspection if such inspection would disclose:
* * * *
Information contained in such records to be used in a prospective law enforcement action. "
KRS 17.150(5) states, "The provisions of KRS Chapter 61 dealing with administrative and judicial remedies for inspection of public records and penalties for violations thereof shall be applicable to this section."
KRS 61.878(1)(j) provides that among those public records which are exempt from public inspection in the absence of a court order authorizing inspection are, "Public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by enactment of the General Assembly."
In addition, KRS 61.878(1)(f) includes among those records which may be withheld from public inspection in the absence of a court order authorizing inspection:
"Records of law enforcement agencies or agencies involved in administrative adjudication that were compiled in the process of detecting and investigating statutory or regulatory violations if the disclosure of the information would harm the agency by revealing the identity of informants not otherwise known or by premature release of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action or administrative adjudication. Unless exempted by other provisions of KRS 61.870 to 61.884, public records exempted under this provision shall be open after enforcement action is completed or a decision is made to take no action. Provided, however that the exemptions provided by this subsection shall not be used by the custodian of the records to delay or impede the exercise of rights granted by KRS 61.870 to 61.884;"
The undersigned has examined the Kentucky Uniform Citation Manual, revised January 1, 1988, prepared by the Kentucky State Police Records Section. That manual states, at page two, that a uniform citation must be written for all felonies, misdemeanors, and violations of traffic laws and state statutes. Most of the citations require court disposition and those are forwarded to the appropriate court clerk. These citations, therefore, initiate a legal proceeding, and as the citation forms themselves indicate, contain material to be used in the law enforcement proceedings.
In OAG 77-102, copy enclosed, this office said that, generally, the "police blotter" or police "incident report" is not exempt from public inspection. The records of a local police department are subject to inspection unless they are exempted by statute. One recognized exemption which applies to some police department records is set forth in KRS 61.878(1)(f). This office concluded in OAG 79-582, copy enclosed, that records of the activities of a police department are open to public inspection unless the disclosure would jeopardize an ongoing case in which prosecution has not been completed or a decision to prosecute has not been made.
In conclusion it is the opinion of the Attorney General that a local police department may withhold from public inspection those copies of the uniform citations which require court disposition until such time as the legal proceedings involving those citations have been concluded or resolved.
As required by statute, a copy of this opinion is being mailed to the appealing party, Mr. Jim Malone, who has the right to challenge it in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882.