Accessing police documents
Q: I would like to know if the following document is covered under the California Public Records Act. The chief of police for the my local police department maintains a form, which list in a chart format, on a monthly basis, the number of citations issued, arrests made, etc. for the department. This form is made available at public meetings and to the board of directors of the local community services district of which the police department is part of the district. I want to inspect these forms. After reading over the actual Public Records Act sections, it would appear that this form would be covered under the law. Do you agree?
A: While the police department may try to argue that the record is exempt from disclosure under Government Code section 6254(f). While that section exempts several categories of records — records of complaints and investigations, records of intelligence information or security procedures, and investigatory and security files — there is a good argument that a monthly chart of the number of citations issued, arrests made, etc. would not be a record covered by this exemption. In addition, to the extent the police department has provided this record to some other member of the public — a person with no official role or special legal entitlement to obtain it — it must be provided to everybody even if section 6254(f) or some other exemption arguably applied. See Government Code section 6254.5.
If you have not already done so, I suggest you submit a request to the police department for the records under the PRA. If your request is in writing and the department denies your request, it must specify, in writing, the exemptions in the PRA upon which it is relying. See Government Code section 6255.