Is Police Misconduct a Secret in Your State?

Police disciplinary records are not explicitly confidential, but police departments routinely deny requests for such records under local ordinances or Alaska Statute § 40.25.120, which exempts any release of law enforcement records that would constitute an "unwarranted invasion of privacy." State employee disciplinary records are confidential under Alaska Statute § 39.25.080.

Under Arizona Statutes §§ 39-121 - 39-128 and § 38-1109, police disciplinary records are available to the public provided the internal investigation has closed and any appeals process has concluded. In 1998, the Arizona Court of Appeals found in Bolm v. Custodian of Records of the Tucson Police Department that while official records of discipline are public, other personnel evaluations or internal affairs investigation records may still potentially be withheld on privacy grounds.

Police disciplinary records are not explicitly confidential, but departments routinely deny requests under the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act, which allows custodians to withhold certain criminal justice records at their discretion, or the Colorado Open Records Act, which exempts personnel records from disclosure.

Section 1-210 of Connecticut's Freedom of Information Act exempts police disciplinary records from any public disclosure that would constitute "an invasion of personal privacy." However, the precedent set by the Connecticut Supreme Court in Perkins v. Freedom of Information Commission in 1993 made it difficult to successfully withhold disciplinary records on privacy grounds, and requests for such records are generally granted on appeal to the state's Freedom of Information Commission.

District of Columbia

CONFIDENTIAL

Records pertaining to an active disciplinary investigation are confidential under Georgia Code § 50-18-72(a)(8), but all other police disciplinary records are public.

Exemptions in Section 7 of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act have typically been used to withhold the release of police disciplinary records, but in 2014 the Illinois Appellate Court ruled in Kalven v. City of Chicago that at least some such records must be released. Additional litigation is ongoing.

Under Indiana Code § 5-14-3, police disciplinary records are only public if they pertain to an officer's demotion, suspension, or discharge.

Police disciplinary records are confidential under Iowa Code § 22-7-11. If an officer is discharged, the fact of that discharge is public.

Police disciplinary records are public in Kentucky but subject to a general privacy exemption in KRS § 61.878(1)(a). Police departments may provide heavily redacted records that list disciplinary actions but exclude details about complaints, investigations, and findings. The Kentucky Attorney General's Office has affirmed in 03-ORD-213 and numerous other Open Records Decisions that disciplinary records for on-the-job misconduct should be treated as open records.

Police disciplinary records are frequently withheld under Section 15.243.1(a) of Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, which exempts any "unwarranted invasion of privacy," and § 15.243.1(s), which exempts law enforcement personnel records unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.

Police disciplinary records are exempt from public disclosure under Section 25-1-100 of the Mississippi Code.

Under Montana Code § 2-6-102 and Article II, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution, police disciplinary records are exempt from disclosure if there is an "individual privacy interest that clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure." While records custodians in Montana routinely withhold these records, state case law tends to favor disclosure on appeal.

New Hampshire

CONFIDENTIAL

Some police departments have withheld disciplinary records on the grounds that their contents are "matters of opinion," which are exempt from disclosure under New Mexico Statute § 14-2-1(A)(3). The 1977 case Newsome v. Alarid interpreted that exemption to include "documents concerning infractions and disciplinary action," but the 2010 case Cox v. New Mexico Dep’t of Public Safety and the Attorney General's 2015 Public Records Compliance Guide hold that records of citizen complaints against police officers are public and non-exempt.

Police disciplinary records are confidential under New York Civil Rights Law § 50-a, which specifically exempts police, firefighter, and corrections officer personnel records from disclosure. Many other public employee personnel records are public.

County and city police disciplinary records are largely confidential under North Carolina General Statutes § 153A-98 and § 160A-168, respectively. The date of any suspension or demotion is public, but not the reason for the disciplinary action. If an officer is dismissed, the reason for the dismissal is public.

Under Oklahoma Open Records Act § 51-24A.7, police personnel records may be kept confidential unless they are records of "final disciplinary action" resulting in loss of pay, suspension, demotion, or termination.

Pennsylvania

CONFIDENTIAL

Under Rhode Island General Law § 38-2-2(4)(A)(I)(b), individual police disciplinary records are confidential. Aggregate information on complaints and misconduct in police departments is available with personally identifying information redacted.

Police disciplinary records may be withheld under South Carolina Code § 30-4-40, which exempts "unreasonable invasion[s] of personal privacy" from disclosure, but in 2004 the Court of Appeals ruled in Burton v. York Sheriff's Department that there was "a large and vital public interest" in police conduct that outweighed the privacy interests of the officers.

South Dakota

CONFIDENTIAL

Police disciplinary records are not specifically exempt under Tennessee public records law, but local departments may still withhold such records by claiming they're pertinent to an active or recently-concluded criminal case.

Texas Government Code § 552 generally renders police disciplinary records public. However, many cities in Texas are also covered by Local Government Code § 143, which requires police departments to maintain civil service personnel files on each police officer. Those civil service files are available for public inspection and contain records of disciplinary actions, but only if the officer received at least a suspension or loss of pay. If the only discipline was a "written reprimand," the records are instead placed in a confidential internal file.

See also: Open Records Decision 562 from the Texas Attorney General

Local police departments may withhold disciplinary records under 1 V.S.A. § 317(c)(7), but in 2013 the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in Rutland Herald v. City of Rutland that the public interest in disclosure outweighed the officers' privacy interest in that case. Internal investigations of Vermont state troopers are conducted by the State Police Advisory Commission and confidential under 20 V.S.A. § 1923.

Police disciplinary records are typically available under Washington's Public Records Act. The personal privacy exemption is narrowly defined, applying only to records that are "not of legitimate concern to the public" and the release of which would be "highly offensive."

West Virginia Code § 29B exempts records from disclosure if their release would constitute an "an unreasonable invasion of privacy." Police departments have frequently used this exemption to withhold disciplinary records, but in 2013 the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in Charleston Gazette v. Smithers that on-the-job police conduct does not fall under the invasion of privacy exemption.