Request By:
Christopher W. Johnson, Esq.
Kentucky State Police
Legal Section
919 Versailles Road
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Chris Allgeier has apparently appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of his request to inspect various records in the custody of the Kentucky State Police.
Mr. Allgeier submitted a form dated June 6, 1988, in which he made the following requests:
"Copies of all criminal records pertaining to Dwight Douglas Scott aka Douglas Dwight Scott, SS #403-94-2306, DOB 03/04/58: 1) all arrest warrants and supporting affidavits; 2) all police investigation reports; 3) all written or summarized statements; 4) all final disposition records on all arrests. "
You replied to Mr. Allgeier in a letter dated June 21, 1988, and advised him in part as follows:
"I am in receipt of your request for all arrest records of Dwight Douglas Scott aka Douglas Dwight Scott, DOB 03/04/58, SSN 403-94-2306. While arrests made by this agency may be open records if the case has been closed, or they appear on a log, arrests of an individual made by other agencies but retained by the State Police as Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) are not open to public inspection. KRS 61.878(1)(j) and KRS 17.150(4)."
Mr. Allgeier, in a note dated August 15, 1988, said he was requesting review by the Attorney General. He sent the note, however, to the State Police and your office received it on August 19, 1988. You subsequently sent the note to this office and we received it on August 29, 1988.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
KRS 61.878(1)(j) provides that among the public records which may be withheld 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."
KRS 17.150(4) provides as follows:
Centralized criminal history records are not subject to public inspection. Centralized history records mean information on individuals collected and compiled by the justice cabinet from criminal justice agencies and maintained in a central location consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, information, or other formal criminal charges and any disposition arising therefrom, including sentencing, correctional supervision and release. Such information is restricted to that recorded as the result of the initiation of criminal proceedings or any proceeding related thereto. Nothing in this subsection shall apply to documents maintained by criminal justice agencies which are the source of information collected by the justice cabinet. Criminal justice agencies shall retain such documents and no official thereof shall willfully conceal or destroy any record with intent to violate the provisions of this section."
While centralized criminal history records maintained by the State Police are not subject to public inspection, documents maintained by local criminal justice agencies which are the source of information collected by the State Police may be subject to public inspection, particularly if the legal proceedings involving those records and the subjects of those records have been completed. Thus, information which is now part of the State Police's centralized records, and not available from that source, may be available from the applicable local law enforcement agency. See OAG 81-379 and OAG 82-388, copies of which are enclosed.
You advised Mr. Allgeier that if he was interested in State Police case reports you would attempt to assist him if he could provide some additional information such as the nature of the case. You also advised that arrests made by the State Police may be made available if the arrests are recorded on a log or if the case relative to the arrest has been closed.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Attorney General that the State Police properly withheld from public inspection the arrest records of a particular person which are part of the State Police's centralized criminal history records and which have been collected and compiled from materials supplied by local criminal justice agencies.
As required by statute, a copy of this opinion is being mailed to the appealing party, Mr. Chris Allgeier, who has the right to challenge it in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882.