City Employee Information and Privacy

City Employee Information and Privacy

Q: The human resources director in our city says the city has a policy requiring written consent from any past employee before releasing information about the individual’s employment there, including dates of employment.
My questions:
1. Is this a permissible policy under state public records law and
2. Can I request a former policeman’s personnel file from the city?

A: To take your second question first, under something called the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, in Penal Code § 832.7 and related statutes, police departments in California can refuse to provide copies of information in a police officer’s personnel file under the California Public Records Act in Gov’t Code § 6250 et seq.  There is a case saying that the city or department can give you the information if it wants, Bradshaw v. City of Los Angeles, 221 Cal. App. 3d 908 (1990), but that case has been questioned and it’s continued viability is in some doubt.  As a practical matter, most cities and law enforcement agencies refuse to provide the personnel files because the law says they don’t have to.

Consequently, if your first question pertains to a former police officer, it may be difficult to get any information that is exclusively in his/her personnel file.  The California Court of Appeal has held that some information about police officers, such as the names of officers involved in a shooting incident, has to be disclosed in response to a Public Records Act request because that information is not exclusively in their personnel file.  New York Times Co. v. Superior Court, 52 Cal. App. 4th 97 (1997).  How far this goes, and whether it would apply to things like the officer’s dates of employment, is unclear.  Your best bet would be to request certain specific information that might fall within the New York Times exception to the Peace Officers’ Bill of Rights — i.e., information that would not exclusively be in the officer’s personnel file.  Do NOT ask for the personnel file itself (or all the contents of it).

As a general rule, information like dates of employment is available with respect to public employees in California (at least those not involved in law enforcement).  The Court of Appeal has held that the exception to the PRA in section 6254(c) for private information in personnel files does not include the kind of information that would typically be included on a resume, such as work experience, education, training and the like. Eskaton Monterey Hospital v. Myers, 134 Cal. App. 3d 788 (1982).