COLUMBUS, Ohio -Newspapers suing for photos of uniformed police told state Supreme Court justices yesterday that an exemption in Ohio's open records law is so broad it would prevent anyone from identifying law enforcement officers.
A police officer's name and image is not private
it's not personal said Fred Gittes, a lawyer representing The Vindicator in Youngstown. We don't have KGB police forces and secret forces here.
At issue is a 2000 change to the law that exempts from disclosure any record identifying a person's occupation as a police officer, firefighter or emergency medical technician. Legislation already had banned the public from receiving personal information about police officers, including their addresses, phone numbers and the names of family members.
Attorneys for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Vindicator argued that, if interpreted literally, the amended law would make it impossible to identify any police officers.
But Thomas Anastos, assistant Cleveland law director, said information such as officers' names and photos still could be obtained by suing or filing a complaint.
Justice Paul Pfeifer questioned whether that was not an extreme course of action.
It's probably not the greatest outcome in the world in terms of what we all anticipate nowadays as far as availability of information Anastos replied. But when you balance that against all the reasons why specific information should not be given out as a public records request
the choice has been made by the people who make the policy decisions.
Pfeifer said identifying specific officers can be important, especially when they are accused of wrongdoing.
It's not insignificant whose face is in the newspaper when some officer has done something very bad
he said. That face distinguishes the officer who has done something bad from all the rest of the hardworking officers.
The newspapers, backed by other media organizations, argue the broad exemption goes against a centuries-old tradition obliging people with police powers to be clearly identified to the communities they are hired to protect.
Public confidence in the legitimacy of the coercive authority of the police requires that the public be able to learn the identity of most police officers on demand
David Marburger, a Cleveland attorney and open records expert, argued in court papers. State-sanctioned anonymity of law enforcement officers is a sudden and arbitrary break with vital democratic tradition.
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