Accessing 911 Calls and Police Reports

Accessing 911 Calls and Police Reports

Q: I’m producing a documentary on the lives of Transgender women. Many of them have been assaulted or even killed for being who they are. I want to show a few instances of that through 911 calls, police reports, and associated photos. The police department won’t even respond to my requests. Do I have a right to obtain this information?

A: Under the California Public Records Act (“PRA”), Govt. Code section 6250 et seq., records in the possession of state or local public agencies are presumed to be public unless an exemption to disclosure applies.   With respect to any PRA requests, your request can either be made orally or in writing.  If it is in writing and the agency decides that it is going to decline your request, they are required to respond in writing (within 10 days) and specify the exemptions to disclosure on which they are relying.   A sample written request can be found at the following link: http://www.cfac.org/templates/cpraletter.html

The PRA exemption at issue for the records you seek is found at Government Code section 6254(f), which exempts from disclosure records of law enforcement complaints and investigations.   Although this section exempts the records themselves from disclosure, a police agency is nevertheless required to provide you with certain information pertaining to arrests, complaints, and requests for assistance.  Here’s what section 6254(f) says the department has to provide to the public:
“The time, substance, and location of all complaints or requests for assistance received by the agency and the time and nature of the response thereto, including, to the extent the information regarding crimes alleged or committed or any other incident investigated is recorded, the time, date, and location of occurrence, the time and date of the report, the name and age of the victim, the factual circumstances surrounding the crime or incident, and a general description of any injuries, property, or weapons involved.”  Govt. Code section 6254(f)(2).

Agencies must also disclose to the public “[t]he full name and occupation of every individual arrested by the agency, the individual’s physical description including date of birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height and weight, the time and date of arrest, the time and date of booking, the location of the arrest, the factual circumstances surrounding the arrest, the amount of bail set, the time and manner of release or the location where the individual is currently being held, and all charges the individual is being held upon, including any outstanding warrants from other jurisdictions and parole or probation holds.”  Subject to certain conditions, the agency is also required to release the address of every individual arrested by the agency.  Govt. Code section 6254(f)(1) & (3).

It is important to remember that in most instances the section 6254(f) exemption is permissive, not mandatory.  In other words, although the law enforcement agency is not required to provide you with documents reflecting complaints or investigations, they are nevertheless free to do so.  It is in fact quite common for law enforcement agencies to provide the press and public with documents that are technically exempt under 6254(f).

With this background in mind, let me address each of the categories of records at issue in your inquiry.  You first asked about access to records of 911 calls.  As an initial matter, your PRA request should be directed to the entity that maintains the 911 tapes in your jurisdiction – sometimes the police, sometimes the fire department.  If the agency refuses your request on the basis of 6254(f), you might remind the agency that the PRA affirmatively requires police agencies to provide the public with “the substance” of “all requests for assistance,” including all of the “factual circumstances surrounding the incident.”  Government Code section 6254(f)(2).  Often, the best way for the agency at issue to comply with this statutory obligation is to release the 911 tape, and many agencies release 911 tapes upon request.

Next, with regard to police reports, in a case calledWilliams v. Superior Court, 5 Cal. 4th 337 (1993), the California Supreme Court concluded that under 6254(f), a law enforcement agency can properly refuse to provide police reports themselves (although there is nothing to prevent the agency from providing you with a copy of the police report if they wished).  However, as noted, the law enforcement agency is obligated to provide you with certaininformation typically found in a police report.  Given all of the information that a law enforcement agency is required to provide about arrests and requests for assistance upon request by a member of the public, it is often easier for them to provide a copy of the report.  As with 911 tapes, many law enforcement agencies regularly provide copies of police reports upon request.
With respect to police photographs, The California Attorney General has determined that “mug shots” are “records of investigation” under Section 6254(f).  86 Op. Atty Gen. Cal. 132   Therefore, as with police reports, the police have discretion whether or not to provide public access to such photographs.  However, it is also clear that once a copy a photograph is disseminated to the general public, a copy must be made available to anyone else who asks for it, upon request. Id.

Finally, for your PRA requests to the Police Department, it might be useful to cite to San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance, which may provide greater rights than the PRA.  In particular, Section 67.24(d) provides that “The District Attorney, Chief of Police, and Sheriff are encouraged to cooperate with the press and other members of the public in allowing access to local records pertaining to investigations, arrests, and other law enforcement activity,” and “[r]ecords pertaining to any investigation, arrest or other law enforcement activity shall be disclosed to the public once the District Attorney or court determines that a prosecution will not be sought against the subject involved, or once the statute of limitations for filing charges has expired, whichever occurs first.” Id. For more information, here is a link to the website for the Sunshine Ordinance’s task force, which also includes the full text of the Ordinance.  http://www.sfgov.org/site/sunshine_index.asp