Q: I’m currently battling a workers’ comp case with my former employer. In November, my husband requested a welfare check on my behalf. In that documentation — a computer-aided dispatch log — someone placed fraudulent information. I have requested the computer-aided dispatch logs through my former agency. The department has denied the request for radio, phone, and cab logs based on the following letter:
We have received your California Public Records Act request, these files are exempt from disclosure pursuant to Government Code 6254. However, you can contact the local law enforcement agencies to request what is releasable to you under the California Public Records Act.
I don’t believe that Government Code 62254 applies in this case, can you please advise further?
A: Unfortunately, the Public Records Act broadly exempts police investigatory reports from disclosure, and it may be that the records you seek fall within this exemption. Under Government Code § 6254(f), “Records of . . . investigations conducted by . . . any state or local police agency, or any investigatory . . . files compiled by any other state or local police agency, or any investigatory or security files compiled by any other state or local agency for correctional, law enforcement, or licensing purposes” are exempt from disclosure. Although this section requires law enforcement agencies to disclose certain information about a particular incident – e.g., the names and addresses of persons involved, the names and addresses of witnesses, a description of the property involved, and the time, date and location of the incident – such disclosure is not required if it “would endanger the safety of a witness or other person involved in the investigation.”
However, it sounds like the denial to the records you seek came from a non-police agency, and it therefore may be that the department has invoked an exemption that it cannot actually invoke. You may want to write back to the department to request more information, reminding it that an agency claiming a particular exemption under the Public Records Act must not only cite the exemption, but explain how it applies. Gov’t Code § 6253(c).
Additionally, if your local police agency does have the records you are seeking, you might want to request the records directly from that agency, as suggested by the department. Per the exemption found in Government Code § 6254(f), the records you seek must be part of an “investigatory file” to be exempt from disclosure. If the police agency wants to invoke this exemption, it will need to explain in writing how the dispatch log qualifies as an investigatory record.
If it does so, you may not be entitled to the actual dispatch log itself; however, you still might be able to get much of the information contained in the log. In the event the agency invokes the exemption, you might remind it that Government Code § 6254(f) requires disclosure of certain specific information related to an incident, even if that information is derived from records that are exempt from disclosure, so long as disclosure would not endanger the safety of a witness or person involved in the investigation.
Under Government Code § 6254(f)(2), this includes such information as “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, [and] the time and date of the report, the name, age, and current address of the victim.”
Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to FAC hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.