Opinion
Opinion By: Gregory D. Stumbo, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the Kentucky State Police's (KSP) denial of Bryan L. Reinhardt's June 7, 2004 request for certain arrest records forwarded to the KSP by the Logan County Sheriff, the Logan County Jailer, and the Russell County Police Department, violated the Open Records Act. For the reasons that follow, we find that KSP's denial of the request did not violate the Act.
By letter dated June 10, 2004, Debborah M. Arnold, Official Custodian of Records, denied Mr. Reinhardt's request, advising:
By your request dated June 9, 2004, you requested copies of documents filed with KSP under KRS 171.110 with respect to certain documents related to your arrest by the Logan County Sheriff's Department pursuant to the provisions of the Kentucky Open Records Act. Please be advised that any such records in the possession of KSP are exempt from production pursuant to KRS 17.150(4) (COPY ENCLOSED). To the extent your request can be construed to seek information as to whether the Logan County Sheriff's Department has filed certain records with KSP, please be advised that the Open Records Act does not require an agency to respond to questions.
Shortly after receipt of the KSP's denial of his request, Mr. Reinhardt initiated the instant appeal asking this office to determine whether the denial was a violation of the Open Records Act. We find that the KSP properly denied the authority of KRS 17.150(4). That statute provides:
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. The information shall be 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 the documents and no official thereof shall willfully conceal or destroy any record with intent to violate the provisions of this section.
(Emphasis added.)
Denial of access to the centralized criminal history records system maintained by the State Police has been approved in a series of open records decisions dating back to 1976. See OAG 76-604; OAG 77-28; OAG 82-288; OAG 88-63. Accordingly, we find that the KSP's denial of Mr. Reinhardt's request under KRS 17.150(4) was proper and did not constitute a violation of the Open Records Act.
In his letter of appeal, Mr. Reinhardt provided this office with copies of correspondence and open records requests with various State and Federal law enforcement officials in which he requests that an investigation of alleged misconduct of Logan County officials or that a comparison of arrest and fingerprint records be conducted. We cannot address, in the context of an open records appeal, non-open records issues of this nature. The Attorney General "is not empowered to resolve . . . non-open records related issues in an appeal initiated under KRS 61.880(1)." 99-ORD-121, p. 17. Our review is confined to the issue of whether the KSP violated the Open Records Act in its handling of Mr. Reinhardt's request, which, as noted above, we concluded it did not.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.