Oklahoma police often keep lock on open records, survey finds
By The Associated Press
09.01.00
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OKLAHOMA CITY — A massive survey of compliance with the state
Open Records Act illustrates the need for more education of local police
agencies, the state's chief legal officer says.
"One of the upshots of this survey is that it may be time to do
another round of regional seminars," Attorney General Drew Edmondson said of 16
regional meetings his office conducted in 1998 to explain what information
should be released to the media under the 1985 Open Records Act.
Sheriff's offices and local police departments in many of the state's
77 counties fared poorly in the survey of citizen access to government
records.
One in four city and county law enforcement agencies did not comply
with requests for public documents, such as arrest records, this summer by
reporters for The Daily Oklahoman
and the Tulsa World.
"Obviously we're disappointed that a law that has been on the books
since the 1980s was so flagrantly ignored by many law enforcement officers,"
said Joe Worley, executive editor of the World.
Sue Hale, executive editor of the Oklahoman, says that citizens are the ones who are
harmed by denying press access to public records.
"The First Amendment really belongs to every citizen of this country
and that's why it's so important for the public to see what its government is
doing and to be able to individually have access to the records," Hale said.
"Every time an official denies access to a member of the media they are
actually denying access to the public."
The Oklahoma Press Association and
Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc.
also took part in the project and generally found that local and state
government agencies — other than sheriffs and police departments —
usually complied with records requests.
John Walsh, executive director of the Oklahoma Sheriff's Association,
said he wasn't surprised by the survey results. He said there "has always been
a lot of confusion" about the law.
"If they're going to err, they're going to err on the side of
deferring the decision-making process to the district attorney," Walsh said of
sheriff's departments.
Jim Cox, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Police
Chiefs, said he was a little surprised "that there would not be more of a full
understanding of those requirements and the ability to respond to it." But Cox
agrees there is a tendency among police to "err on the side of caution."
David McCullough, attorney for the OPA and FOI Oklahoma, said there is
no excuse for such a high rate of noncompliance among police officers, since
the law spells out what they are required to release.
The law also protects the police from any legal liability for
releasing records, so "any erring should be on the side of making the
information public," McCullough said.
Mark Thomas, executive vice president of the OPA, said he was
surprised there was "this much resistance to things that are clearly stated in
the act as open records."
"I just don't think they get enough training to know these things,"
Thomas said, noting that other governmental entities had a much higher
compliance rate in the survey.
The OPA contacted 1,454 schools, municipalities, regents and state
agencies and almost 90% complied with requests for copies of their agendas.
Only about 1% denied the request, while 7.7% did not respond. Among 77 county
clerks, 16 boards of regents and 29 vocational school boards, there was 100%
compliance.
A retired schoolteacher was hired by FOI Oklahoma to request treasurer
records of small towns in several counties and received a friendly reception.
There were no denials.
Thomas said there is "still a question about how high a rate of
compliance you would get if the survey involved high-voltage records, such as
requests for salary information."
Now that the surveys have been done, he expressed optimism that
progress will be made toward the full release of information that "will be to
the benefit of the public."
"That's what everyone's trying to do," Thomas said.
"Open and full disclosure should be the rule when public business is
conducted," said Gov. Frank Keating. "The Open Records Act was intended to
allow taxpayers access to public records and it has been successful to a large
degree."
Edmondson said the survey results, especially regarding local police,
"show that our work isn't over and that education on the open-meeting and
open-records acts are continuing matters."
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