Request By:
Mr. Rick Bryant
Staff Reporter
The Commonwealth-Journal
Somerset, Kentucky 42501
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General on questions pertaining to the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884. First, you ask if communications carried out between police departments through the National Crime Information Center computer are open to the press.
This office cannot give an answer to abstract questions and we only give opinions in response to questions relating to current factual situations. 40 KAR 1.020 § 4. It is also inappropriate that we give a flat yes or no to your question because the Attorney General by statute is assigned the duty of ruling on an appeal when a record is denied public inspection. We will only point out a few of the statutory provisions which may have a bearing on your question.
The press has only such right of access to public records as the general public has. KRS 61.872.
Centralized criminal history records are not subject to public inspection. KRS 17.150(4). Intelligence and investigative reports maintained by criminal justice agencies are subject to public inspection providing prosecution is completed or a determination of not to prosecute has been made. KRS 17.150(2). These provisions of the statute on criminal history records mean that centralized records are not subject to public inspection but criminal records in local units of governments are subject to public inspection with the exception of records of cases which have not been completed or the disclosure of which might harm the agency by revealing the identity of informants not otherwise known. KRS 61.878(1)(f).
You also ask our opinion as to whether the police log, uniform accident reports, standard crime reports and arrest logs are open to the public.
In OAG 77-102, copy enclosed, we said that the police blotter or incident reports are open to public inspection under the Open Records Law. In OAG 76-478, copy enclosed, we said that police departments do not have the authority to act privately, confidentially or secretly unless expressly authorized in particular kinds of cases. The preamble to the Open Records Act (HB 138, 1976 Acts) reads as follows:
"The government is the servant of the people and not the master of them and access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every citizen in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
You also ask for a statement on the effect of an Attorney General's opinion declaring that an agency has improperly denied access to a public record.
When the Attorney General declares that a public agency has denied inspection of a public record unlawfully, the agency should make the record available to the requester immediately or institute proceedings within 30 days for injunctive or declaratory relief in the circuit court. KRS 61.880(5). If the agency neither makes the record available or institutes an action in the circuit court, the requester may institute an action in the circuit court. If the circuit court finds that the record was willfully withheld in violation of the Open Records Law, it may award all costs, including reasonable attorney's fees incurred in connection with such legal action. The court may also award the requester up to $25 for each day that he was denied the right to inspect or copy said public record. KRS 61.882(5). Any agency, or custodian of the records of an agency, ignoring an opinion of the Attorney General that a record should be open for public inspection, runs the risk of being penalized by the court.
In summary, the 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, or unless the disclosure would reveal the identity of an informant which has not otherwise been made known.