Question
Using information provided at a journalism conference by a CFAC attorney, I asked a local police agency for a basic incident report on a fatal hazing incident, citing 6254F, F1 and F2.
The officer said he was not required to give the report, citing (of all things) 6254 F. I asked if he could just provide the information from the report, if not the report itself. He said that information is no longer available because the incident is a few years old.
Is he required to dig the incident report from the police logs out of the archives? And does he have any grounds to refuse me the incident report or at least the information from the report?
Answer
Unfortunately, the officer is correct. As I mentioned at the conference, the California Supreme Court has held that the police do not have to provide copies of the actual reports themselves, but that, under section 6254(f), must provide all the information listed in that section in the case of incidents or arrests. Williams v. Superior Court, 5 Cal. 4th 337 (1993).
And the Court of Appeal has further watered down section 6254(f) by holding that it only requires law enforcement to disclose “current information” that “pertain[s] to contemporaneous police activity,” which has been interpreted by police departments to mean current or recent incidents or arrests. County of Los Angeles v. Superior Court, 18 Cal. App. 4th 588, 601 (1993).
So far the Legislature has not amended the statute to address them.
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.