Court: BRPD records should be public
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A state appeals court sided with The Advocate today and ruled that internal-affairs records from a probe into claims of Baton Rouge police misconduct after Hurricane Katrina should be made public.
“Finding that the police officers under investigation had no individual privacy interest in these files and recognizing a strong public interest in disclosure, we find that the trial court erred in not ordering disclosure of the records” after some “protected” information had been blacked out, 1st Circuit Court of Appeal Judge James Kuhn wrote for a five-judge panel of the court.
The vote was 4-1 to reverse a January 2007 decision by state District Judge Kay Bates.
The internal-affairs probe began after state troopers from Michigan and New Mexico, who were in East Baton Rouge Parish to assist after the hurricane, pulled out of Baton Rouge after allegedly witnessing inappropriate conduct by local police.
The Advocate sued after an attempt to get the internal-affairs information via a public records request failed
“Finding that the police officers under investigation had no individual privacy interest in these files and recognizing a strong public interest in disclosure, we find that the trial court erred in not ordering disclosure of the records” after some “protected” information had been blacked out, 1st Circuit Court of Appeal Judge James Kuhn wrote for a five-judge panel of the court.
The vote was 4-1 to reverse a January 2007 decision by state District Judge Kay Bates.
The internal-affairs probe began after state troopers from Michigan and New Mexico, who were in East Baton Rouge Parish to assist after the hurricane, pulled out of Baton Rouge after allegedly witnessing inappropriate conduct by local police.
The Advocate sued after an attempt to get the internal-affairs information via a public records request failed
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