Request By:
Ms. Diane H. Smith
Official Custodian of Records
Kentucky State Police
919 Versailles Road
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, AssistantAttorney General
Michael O. Caperton, Esq., has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of his requests to inspect records in the custody of the Kentucky State Police.
In a letter to you dated December 15, 1988 Mr. Caperton requested that you furnish him with all records available concerning two specifically named state troopers. You responded to Mr. Caperton in a letter dated December 19, 1988 and advised that his request for information and access to unspecified records is denied. You further said that blanket requests without specifying certain documents need not be honored.
Mr. Caperton wrote to you again in a letter dated December 21, 1988 and said he wanted to inspect all records not confidential pertaining to two specifically named state troopers. Your response to Mr. Caperton, dated December 27, 1988, again advised him that his request was being denied because it was non specific. You said that all documents pertaining to the troopers named are not located in one building. They are not even located in just one city.
In his letter of appeal to this office Mr. Caperton asks whether he is entitled to inspect the records as he has described them.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
The records of the State Police are public records pursuant to KRS 61.870(2) and, with some limitations, open to public inspection. KRS 61.878(1)(a) to (j) set forth those records which may be excluded from public inspection while KRS 61.872 and KRS 61.876 impose some restrictions on the public inspection process.
The Open Records Act provides in part in KRS 61.872(1) that all public records, with certain exceptions, shall be open for public inspection. While persons will obviously acquire information from these records, the primary purpose of the Act is making records available for public inspection. The Act does not require a public agency to provide information beyond that which is made available from permitting access to the public documents. Thus, if the agency is to provide access to public documents the person seeking to inspect those documents must identify them with sufficient clarity to enable the public agency to locate and make them available.
The requesting party has asked that all records in the possession of the State Police concerning two specifically named troopers be made available. This could possibly include personnel files which include a mixture of releasable and nonreleasable material. This could include investigative case files which are not filed under the names of particular troopers and which are located in numerous locations throughout the state. This could include a wide variety of other material which could take a large amount of time to secure even if the subject matter of the material were known.
As far back as 1976 this office, in OAG 76-375, copy enclosed, concluded that blanket requests for information on a particular subject without specifying certain documents need not be honored. If a person cannot describe the documents he seeks to inspect with sufficient specificity there is no requirement that the public agency conduct a search for such material. See OAG 84-342, copy enclosed. A request must be specific enough so that a public agency can identify and locate the records in question. See OAG 86-65, a copy of which is enclosed.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Attorney General that the public agency's response to the request to inspect documents was proper under the Open Records Act as a request to inspect all records pertaining to two specifically named state troopers is too broad and too general to require a production of documents for inspection.
As required by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requesting party, Michael O. Caperton, Esq., who has the right to challenge it in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882.