Judges: WILLIAM J. GUSTE, JR.
Filed Date: 10/18/1991
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Dear Ms. Morris:
Your request for an opinion of the Attorney General was forwarded to me for research and reply. As I appreciate it, your question is as follows:
Under La. R.S.
44:1 et seq., is a student newspaper entitled to receive initial police reports involving crimes committed on campus?
No Louisiana case could be found which directly answers this question. However, the general jurisprudence under La. R.S.
. . . [t]he initial report of the officer or officers investigating a complaint . . . shall be a public record.
Moreover, La. Const. art.
No person shall be denied the right to . . . examine public documents, except in cases established by law.
The guiding principle of interpreting the Louisiana Public Records Law is that it should be liberally construed to extend rather than restrict a person's access to public records. See Bartels v. Roussel,
This office is of the opinion that under La. R.S.
As Trahan, supra, illustrates, although a record may be deemed a public record and therefore available for public inspection, such disclosure may be denied if that would be an unreasonable invasion of the person's privacy. However, because police departments routinely release the names, addresses, and other basic information concerning those adults arrested for crimes, society would not have any objective expectation of privacy that this type of information would not be released. Furthermore, in Amoco Production Co. v. Landry,
While such a disclosure should be allowed under Louisiana law, the federal Family Education Rights And Privacy Act (generally referred to as the Buckley Amendment) as it now stands would technically prohibit the direct disclosure of arrest information, according to Susan Winchell, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of General Counsel. Ms. Winchell, however, advised that a proposed amendment to this act is scheduled to be presented to both houses of Congress this fall, and passage is expected. Additionally, Ms. Winchell said no school has had funds revoked for violating the act, and that before such is possible, the institution would need both a violation of the act and a failure to ensure voluntary compliance. Moreover, the institution may disclose arrest information to the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction, and that agency could thereby release said information to the public without violating the Buckley Amendment as it now stands.
Therefore, under Louisiana law, clearly the answer is that a student newspaper is entitled to initial police reports of a campus police department. For guidance on how you should handle this matter under federal law, I suggest that you contact Susan Winchell at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.
I hope that this opinion adequately addresses your question.
With kind regards, I am
Sincerely,
WILLIAM J. GUSTE, JR. Attorney General
BY: KATHLEEN E. PETERSEN Asst. Attorney General
KEP/bb-1990e
cc: Dr. G. Warren Smith, President Southeastern Louisiana University
Mr. Paul R. Marek, Director Southeastern Louisiana University Police