Ohio Cities Fight Release of Police Photos to Newspapers Posted: April 26th, 2005 10:35 AM EDT
ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The public's right to gain information about police officers against the cities' ability to withhold details is at the center of a legal dispute that has reached the Ohio Supreme Court. At issue is a 2000 change to the state's open records law that exempts any record that identifies a person's occupation as a police officer. That change was to a 1999 law that banned the public from receiving personal information about police officers, including their addresses, phone numbers and the names of their children and other family members. The court planned to hear arguments in the case Tuesday. Two newspapers suing for official photos of police officers say the 2000 law taken to its extreme would prevent citizens from learning even basic information about police officers, such as the names of an arresting officer or those up for promotion. They argue that goes against a centuries-old tradition obliging people with police powers to be clearly identified to the communities they are hired to protect. Public ''confidence in the legitimacy of the coercive authority of the police requires that the public be able to learn the identify of most police officers on demand,'' David Marburger, a Cleveland attorney and open records expert, argued in court papers. ''State-sanctioned anonymity of law enforcement officers is a sudden and arbitrary break with vital democratic tradition.'' The case was brought by The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and The (Youngstown) Vindicator, and supported by other media organizations, including The Associated Press. Youngstown and Cleveland are backed by police groups including the state chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police. Cleveland and Youngstown argue that photographs are part of a police officer's personal information, which has already been exempted under the law dealing with addresses and family members. They also cite numerous other problems with releasing photographs, from endangering officers who may one day go undercover to the lack of relevance the photos have for documenting city business. There is ''no possible monitoring of the business of the city that could be gained by studying an array of the faces of the city's police officers, and there are no insights into the workings of the Division of Police that could be drawn from the images,'' Thomas Anastos, assistant Cleveland law director, wrote in court documents. Iris Guglucello, Youngstown law director, argues that releasing photos would violate officers' constitutional right to privacy. Exempting them, she says in court papers, also is consistent with lawmakers' intent to protect information that, should it become public, could endanger police. The Vindicator sued after the city rejected its request for a photograph of one of its police officers. The Plain Dealer sued after the city rejected a request for pictures of officers, including three individuals honored at an awards ceremony. Marburger notes that the city invited press photographers to an event honoring the three officers but denied the release of their official pictures. Paul Wright, Editor Prison Legal News 972 Putney Rd. PMB 251 Brattleboro, VT 05301 (802) 257-1342 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.prisonlegalnews.org Seattle Office: 2400 NW 80th St. PMB 148 Seattle, WA 98117 (206) 246-1022 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/lGEjbB/6WnJAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
