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Supreme Court affirms
public access to arrest records
http://www.access.uconn.edu/story12.html
A person has the right to obtain information from a police arrest record regardless of whether that person is involved in a lawsuit against the department, the state's Supreme Court has ruled.
The justices ruled earlier this month that the police cannot withhold arrest information on the grounds that arrest reports released to the public would give the person arrested an unfair advantage over the prosecutor.
The decision this month in Chief of Police, Hartford Police Department v. Freedom of Information Commission, goes against the arguments of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Chief State's Attorney John M. Bailey and the Connecticut Council of Municipalities who argued that the state's attorney's rights would be adversely affected by "forcing public agencies to litigate in an unlevel playing field."
Mitchell W. Pearlman, executive director and general counsel of the FOIC, commended the justices for their decision.
"It's quite a good victory but also an enigma on where the court is going to go on FOI matters," Pearlman said.
"To go against the Attorney General and the Chief State's Attorney is a great victory here."
The ruling narrows the 1993 Supreme Court Ruling in Gifford v. Freedom of Information Commssion and could give the public access to police records beyond the most basic, critical information --- name and address of the person arrested, the date, time and place of the arrest, and the offense for which the person was arrested.
Specifically, the ruling reverses the high court's assertion in Gifford that: "Public access to arrest reports while the prosecution is pending would affect the rights of litigants under the laws of discovery."
Writing the opinion of the justices, Justice David M. Borden said that police must release police records to any member of the public upon request despite the person's status with the department.
"The fact that a member of the public might also be an adversary of the agency, does not by itself strip him of his rights under the (FOI) act," Borden wrote.
In the case before the Supreme Court, Carmen Delia Soto of Hartford alleged that she was abused by Hartford Police Officer Raymondo Diaz.
Soto charged the department and the officer with civil rights violations.
Meanwhile, she filed a Freedom of Information request to determine whether the officer had a history of such complaints against him.
Soto asked for the records of any Internal Affairs or Patrol Operations Division investigations relating to Diaz.
Hartford Police denied the request because Soto's civil rights was pending.
