Public records: State can learn from Knox

Knoxville News Sentinel

            There is the classic good news and bad news about a recent auditing of local government compliance with the Tennessee public records law.

            The good news involved Knoxville and Knox County, where access to public records was granted to auditors without question and without unnecessary delay. That certainly is deserving of praise.

            The bad news is the same atmosphere of compliance was missing in too many other parts of the state, including East Tennessee. Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge about the law, which has been on the books for almost 50 years, and an unhealthy suspicion about the public interest prevented auditors posing as ordinary citizens from seeing the records they requested in one-third of the overall cases.

            The audit was completed Nov. 4-5 by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping preserve the public's right to access government documents. The coalition used more than 90 reporters, college students and volunteers to conduct the state's first public access audit and visit all 95 of the state's counties.

            Of a total of 356 requests for public records, 239 were granted, and 117 were denied. County sheriffs' offices had the worst percentage of granting requests - only 55 percent. Zoning commissions and boards had the highest record, with 88 percent of requests for board minutes granted.

            School systems fared only slightly better than county law enforcement agencies, with only 60 percent of the requests - for zero-tolerance reports - being granted. City police departments throughout the state met requests for public records 65 percent of the time.

            Reasons for denying access to public records varied, but most centered on the provider's lack of knowledge about the law or suspicion about the reasons for the request. For example, one law enforcement agency in West Tennessee claimed that releasing a police incident report might pose a threat to homeland security.

            A reporter helping with the auditing in Hickman County in Middle Tennessee had his driver's license confiscated after asking to see a crime log and separate reports on a burglary and a theft.

            In separate incidents, auditors asking to see zero-tolerance records in schools systems were asked the reason for the request, with one schools superintendent exclaiming, "Well, if you aren't going to tell me why you want it, then you ain't going to get no record."

            Tennessee's Public Records Law states that all state, county and municipal records "shall at all times, during business hours, be open for personal inspection by any citizen of Tennessee, and those in charge of such records shall not refuse such right of inspection to any citizen, unless otherwise provided by state law."

            Further, there is no legal requirement for citizens to explain their interest in the record or stipulate how they intend to use the information. "The use of public information can't be restricted," said Frank Gibson, executive director of the coalition and an editor at The Tennessean in Nashville.

            The law has been around since 1957 and is a model for open public records as far as it goes. However, it has no teeth to force compliance from uncooperative or untrained personnel. The only recourse is a lawsuit, which in many cases for a private citizen is simply too expensive.

            We would encourage the Legislature to take another look at this law, not to create more exemptions - some 200 have been enacted in the last 47 years - but to install simple accountability to require officials and public employees to know the law and face the possibility of penalties for noncompliance. The burden should not be on the citizen who is making an honest effort to exercise his or her right.

            Others in the state can take a cue from the compliance record of Knoxville and Knox County authorities. We are particularly impressed by the comments of Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk, who said, "We emphasize (to employees) that we work for the citizens, and our records are open for inspection. I don't think you'll find a police agency in the state that will allow more access to records than we do."