Agencies Often Keep Records From Citizens, Study Finds

Cities, police agencies and school districts in California routinely block legitimate requests by citizens for public records, according to a survey released Friday.

Government officials often deny even mundane requests for police logs and health and safety information, according to the report by student researchers working for the Society of Professional Journalists and the nonprofit California First Amendment Coalition.

More than three-quarters of 138 oral requests for information were denied. Even when the demands were put in writing, more than half were rejected by authorities, according to the survey.

Advocates for open public records said they hope the survey will persuade Gov. Gray Davis to sign a bill, SB 2027, that would allow citizens to appeal rejections of record requests.

Under the proposal by Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), the attorney general’s office would issue an opinion on whether the information should be released. Agencies that act in bad faith could be forced to pay citizens as much as $100 a day for each day that records are withheld.

“Plainly, the Public Records Act needs serious attention by the Legislature and Gov. Davis if it is to be a force for informed self-government by voters and taxpayers,” said Terry Francke, general counsel for the Sacramento-based First Amendment Coalition.

The survey used college students to test the responsiveness of more than 130 police departments, cities, school districts and sheriff’s departments in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The students asked police for logs of 911 calls, school districts for student expulsion records, cities for copies of health and safety violations by landlords, and sheriff’s departments for copies of death-in-custody reports.

All these records clearly should be released under provisions of state law or legal rulings, said Francke, an expert on media law.

But most of the agencies denied the requests. Even after a formal written request, police departments gave up 911 logs only 36% of the time. Cities released the building and safety documents in 40% of cases and schools provided expulsion records 67% of the time.

In one instance, the Costa Mesa Police Department demanded that a young woman requesting 911 records sign an affidavit stating that she had never been arrested in the city, even though the law does not limit records access to anyone.

Journalists routinely face rejection of such requests, the study noted. But reporters and editors can rely on inside sources or the power of editorial advocacy to get to the truth, while average citizens have little leverage, Francke said.