Request By:
Mr. Ed Burtner
City Manager
City of Winchester
City Hall
Winchester, Kentucky 40391
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. John Myers has appealed to the Attorney General, pursuant to KRS 61.880, your denial of his request to inspect radio transmission logs of the Winchester Police Department.
On or about February 8, 1989, Mr. Myers apparently tendered to you, a request, upon a form used by the City of Winchester, to review radio transmission logs generated by the Winchester Police Department. The Department also dispatches, and notes upon its dispatch log, calls to the Clark County Sheriff's Office. The records sought to be inspected are the radio transmission log sheets for the period from January 1, 1985 through the date the review requested is carried out.
By letter of February 14, 1989 to Mr. Myers, you explained the basis of denial that had been indicated by marking a line upon the request form, stating the request places an unreasonable burden upon the custodian in producing voluminous public records.
Your letter to Mr. Myers indicated his request was being denied under KRS 61.872(5), "in that the request places an unreasonable burden in producing voluminous records," and under KRS 61.878(f), in that the records "contain information relating to investigations and adjudications, the premature release of which would impede criminal investigations."
As "further authority" for denial, you cited Opinion of the Attorney General (OAG) 76-375 "in that this is a blanket request," and OAG 76-424, "in that records contain information exempted from disclosure for law enforcement reasons."
You noted that while in the past the city has honored requests from the public to view radio transmission logs, this request was denied due to the voluminous nature of the records - four years worth of radio transmission logs of the Winchester Police Department. You indicated honoring the request would place a "significant" administrative burden upon the Department.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Without belaboring the issue, police radio transmission logs are, in general, subject to public inspection. This is substantially acknowledged in your letter which states that in the past the city has honored requests from the public to view the radio transmission logs. This office has observed that records made available to one member of the public for one purpose, must be made available to the public generally for any purpose. OAG 82-394. Further, prior opinions of this office have upheld access to police dispatch logs. See for example, OAG 82-70.
Denial based upon KRS 61.872(5), regarding an unreasonable burden in producing voluminous records, and as a "blanket" request, is not substantiated where the records sought are of an identified, limited, class, typically maintained by month or year, so that they may be made rather readily available as by providing appropriate binders or boxes.
A blanket denial of inspection of all records of a given class, typically recognized as subject to inspection by the public, is too general to support denial pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(f). KRS 61.878(1)(f) exempts from inspection, except pursuant to court order, records of law enforcement agencies
. . . compiled in the process of detecting and investigating statutory . . . violations, if . . . disclosure . . . would harm the agency by revealing the identity of informants . . . or by premature release of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action. . . .
This language speaks to particular records, not to an entire class of records, such as police dispatch logs.
Police dispatch logs are typically seriatim notations, commonly of a summary character, of police dispatches and disposition codes, compiled collaterally to, and not integrally in the process of, detecting and investigating statutory violations, in contrast to, for example, an investigator's notes. Such logs have never been granted blanket exclusion from inspection by the public in this state. In order to be exempted from inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(f), particulars regarding given notations on a log would have to be articulated in terms of the requirements of the statute.
To the extent the City of Winchester denied the request by citing specific exceptions, provided a brief explanation addressing how the exceptions cited apply to the records in question, and furnished a copy of its denial to this office, it acted consistent with the provisions of KRS 61.870 to 61.884.
However, it is the opinion of this office that the City of Winchester has not established proper basis of denial of inspection of the radio logs of the Winchester Police Department. They must be made available for inspection. KRS 61.872; OAG 82-70; OAG 82-394.
As required by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the appealing party, Mr. John Myers. Your agency may appeal this opinion to the Clark Circuit Court, in accordance with KRS 61.880.