Judges: Robert A. Butterworth Attorney General
Filed Date: 10/1/1991
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Honorable R.T. "Tim" Dobeck Sheriff Indian River County
QUESTION:
1. Are original crime reports which relate to ongoing, active cases exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.
2. If not, may a law enforcement agency delete from the crime report those portions which contain criminal investigative or criminal intelligence information?
SUMMARY:
A crime or incident report prepared by a law enforcement agency after a specific crime has been committed which contains information given during the initial reporting of the crime prior to the initiation of the investigation, does not constitute criminal investigative or intelligence information. If the report, however, contains information gathered during the criminal justice agency's investigation which qualifies as active criminal investigative information, such information may be deleted and the remainder of the crime or incident report disclosed.
You request clarification of AGO 80-96. That opinion considered two types of reports prepared by law enforcement officers — the crime or incident report which relates to a specific crime and which is prepared by a law enforcement agency after a crime has been committed but prior to the arrest of a suspect, and the arrest report prepared by the law enforcement agency after the arrest of the suspect. Your inquiry specifically concerns the first report — the crime or incident report.1
In AGO 80-96, this office concluded a crime report could not be considered to be criminal intelligence information since it was not collected in an effort to anticipate criminal activity.2 Nor could such a report constitute criminal investigative information since, as this office conceived of the investigative process, the report initiated the investigation into the crime which had been committed and was filed before the investigation. As your questions are interrelated, they will be answered together.
Section
(a) "Criminal intelligence information" means information with respect to an identifiable person or group of persons collected by a criminal justice agency in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor possible criminal activity.
(b) "Criminal investigative information" means information with respect to an identifiable person or group of persons compiled by a criminal justice agency in the course of conducting a criminal investigation of a specific act or omission, including, but not limited to, information derived from laboratory tests, reports of investigators or informants, or any type of surveillance.
(c) "Criminal intelligence information" and "criminal investigative information" shall not include: 1. The time, date, location, and nature of a reported crime. 2. The name, sex, age, and address of a person arrested or of the victim of a crime except as provided in s.
Criminal intelligence information, thus, relates to intelligence information collected generally in an effort to anticipate criminal activity. Criminal investigative information, however, refers to information compiled by a criminal justice agency in the course of conducting an investigation of a specific act or omission.
As stated by the court in Tribune Company v. Cannella,4 in considering the nature of criminal intelligence and investigative information:
Information filed before an investigative process begins cannot be criminal investigative information. Neither can such information be criminal intelligence information, which is information collected in an effort to anticipate criminal activity. (Emphasis supplied by court.)
As noted above, this office in AGO 80-96, cited by theCannella court, concluded a crime report could not be considered to be criminal intelligence information since it was not collected in an effort to anticipate criminal activity. Nor could such a report constitute criminal investigative information since, as this office conceived of the investigative process, the report initiated the investigation and was filed before the investigation. You state, however, that the reporting of the crime, not the crime or incident report, initiates the investigation and that the crime report prepared by your law enforcement officers contains information obtained by the officers' in conducting their investigation.
While there are on standardized crime or incident report forms, such reports would appear to constitute the written record of the reporting of the crime. This office in AGO 80-96, recognizing that there are no standardized forms for such reports, indicated that the items mentioned in s.
To the extent, however, that criminal justice agencies include other information obtained during the investigation of the incident on such a form, such information may well qualify as exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.
The exemption in s.
Thus, information contained in a crime or incident report which reflects information given during the initial reporting of the crime would not ordinarily constitute criminal investigative or intelligence information. On the other hand, if the crime or incident report contains information compiled during theinvestigation of the crime by the criminal justice agency, such information may well qualify as criminal investigative information. The fact that such information is contained in a crime or incident report does not change the nature of the information or the applicability of the exemption.
Similarly, the fact that the crime or incident report may contain criminal investigative or intelligence information does not mean that the entire report is exempt from disclosure. Section
The determination as to whether a crime or incident report merely reflects the information given during the reporting of the crime or whether criminal investigative information may be contained therein is one which, at least initially, the criminal justice agency must make. The criminal justice agency, however, in claiming that certain information is exempt, bears the burden of proving that the information was given during the investigative process.9
RAB/tjw
Tribune Co. v. Cannella , 458 So. 2d 1075 ( 1984 )
FLA. FREEDOM NEWSPAPERS INC. v. Dempsey , 10 Fla. L. Weekly 2560 ( 1985 )
Tribune Co. v. Public Records , 493 So. 2d 480 ( 1986 )
Times Pub. Co. v. City of St. Petersburg , 558 So. 2d 487 ( 1990 )
Tribune Co. v. Cannella , 438 So. 2d 516 ( 1983 )
News and Sun-Sentinel Co. v. Palm Beach Cty. , 13 Fla. L. Weekly 76 ( 1987 )