Police Reports, Public Record
Q: I called our local police department. I would like to get copies of police reports made by a neighbor regarding vandalism to his home. The reports should go back in time as far as 1989. The police department records assistant stated that police reports are not public record. However, various people in this city not associated as a police officer are able to review anything they wish.
Are police reports related to neighborhood vandalism of public record or not? If unable to discover the reports through the police department, and if no action was taken by the DA on any report, how would one gain access to find them? I am looking for one specific report which should be related to the man’s mailbox having been blown up. Yet, no action may have been taken. We believe he is making up stories about vandalism to his home. Could we find information out through his insurance company for the house? What methodologies could we utilize?
A: California’s Public Records Act does exempt police reports from disclosure, but also provides that “state and local law enforcement agencies shall disclose the names and addresses of persons involved in, or witnesses other than confidential informants to, the incident, the description of any property involved, the date, time, and location of the incident, all diagrams, statements of the parties involved in the incident, the statements of all witnesses, other than confidential informants, to the victims of an incident, or an authorized representative thereof, an insurance carrier against which a claim has been or might be made, and any person suffering bodily injury or property damage or loss, as the result of the incident caused by arson, burglary, fire, explosion, larceny, robbery, carjacking, vandalism, vehicle theft, or a crime as defined by subdivision (b) of Section 13951, unless the disclosure would endanger the safety of a witness or other person involved in the investigation, or unless disclosure would endanger the successful completion of the investigation or a related investigation.” Govt. Code Section 6254(f).
In other words, although you cannot force the police to provide you with a copy of the actual police report, they should provide you the information listed above regarding the incidents. (And sometimes law enforcement will provide the reports themselves rather than go through the trouble of extracting this information from the reports.)