Question
A County Sheriff’s Department has put a number of detention deputies on paid administrative leave after an altercation with an inmate, resulting in the inmate’s death. Is it possible to obtain the names of the detention deputies involved?
Answer
You should be able to get the names of the officers, although you may not be able to get the investigative reports themselves.Police officers’ personnel files are subject to unique protections.Generally one seeking access to police files, including imposed disciplinary measures, can only get it within the context of filing a lawsuit, and the courts have read this as exempting such files from the Public Records Act. However, at least one decision has ruled under similar circumstances that this should not prevent a newspaper from getting the names of the individuals that were involved.The case is New York Times Co. v. Superior Court, 52 Cal.App.4th 97 (1997).
Asked & Answered posts should not be relied on as legal advice, and FAC makes no guarantees about their completeness or accuracy. All posts carry a date of publication that readers should take note of in assessing their usefulness, given that laws and interpretations of them may change over time. Posts predating Jan. 1, 2023, that discuss the California Public Records Act may contain statute numbers no longer in use. Please see this page for a table showing how the California Public Records Act has been renumbered.