Open police records

Springfield News-Leader

The Missouri Court of Appeals was right when it rebuked the city of Springfield's attempt to use the Sunshine Law to avoid providing investigation records to William Harris, who is charged with assaulting three police officers.

The court said Harris was entitled to the records as part of the normal discovery phase of court procedure.

City lawyers have argued that the investigative reports Harris wants are protected under the Sunshine Law because they are part of personnel files. The Sunshine Law and established court rulings contradict that argument.

Guyer v. City of Kirkwood, a similar case from the St. Louis area involving a police officer, addressed these issues. The ruling in that case acknowledged a conflict in the Sunshine law. Personnel records are private, but investigative reports, the kind at issue here, are open.

"The court said the basic premise of the Sunshine Law is that everything is open unless there's a specific provision that it's closed," said Jean Maneke, a lawyer for the Missouri Press Association and Sunshine Law expert. She said the court's ruling continued to make the following point: "It's the public policy of the state that records should be open. When you've got a situation where two provisions conflict, then we're going to err on the side of openness." The same principles apply here. It's a simple issue. They are open records.