HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s state open records agency was ordered Tuesday to take another look at its decision to grant access to police drunken-driving training materials to a lawyer who specializes in DUI cases.
The state Commonwealth Court told the Office of Open Records to conduct a hearing that will more fully explore whether releasing course materials from Harrisburg Area Community College used to train police officers might endanger public safety.
The open records appeals officer also was directed to examine the records in question.
Harrisburg lawyer Justin J. McShane wants to see “any and all course materials and/or books, videos, manuals pertaining to DUI training.””
Patrick Early, the school’s open records officer, disclosed some records to McShane in July 2009, but denied others, and enclosed an affidavit defending the denials by state police Maj. John Gallaher, then the executive director of the Municipal Police Officer Education and Training Commission that runs the classes.
Early declined to comment.
The Office of Open Records said that Gallaher’s affidavit did not explain how publicizing the training materials would hamper law enforcement efforts against drunken driving and that the school did not prove the records might be a public safety risk.
McShane said Tuesday he suspects the withheld materials are federal manuals issued to every state, and the Pennsylvania version differs only in its cover.
“Police officers at times — some of them, not all of them — like to play the game of, ‘This isn’t my manual’ when you cross-examine them about it because there’s a different cover,” he said. “So I just kind of want to end that.”
McShane argued that the documents were withheld because he is a criminal defense attorney, and that forcing him to obtain them through the legal discovery process conflicts with the Right-to-Know Law’s goal of giving everyday people access to public records.
The case is the latest to examine the Right-to-Know Law’s public safety exception. Commonwealth Court ruled last year that the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency should disclose the names of recipients of goods and services purchased with federal Homeland Security funds if doing so would not reasonably endanger public safety.
Also last year, Commonwealth Court said the state Board of Probation and Parole did not have to release its strategies for supervising potentially recidivist sex offenders.
Earlier this month, the same court said the Office of Open Records had to hold a formal hearing for the first time, which agency director Terry Mutchler said could overburden her small staff.
In that case, Judge P. Kevin Brobson described as “confounding” the Office of Open Records’ reluctance to conduct hearings or conduct private reviews of the records in question.
Brobson also wrote the lead opinion in the DUI training records case, joined by four others on the seven-judge panel. A sixth judge concurred with the result but did not join Brobson’s opinion.
In a dissent, Judge Dan Pellegrini said Gallaher’s affidavit was insufficient but the school did not deserve “a second bite at the apple to supplement the record.”
“In no way can disclosure of course material related to DUI training possibly be a public safety hazard if released, so any hearing on remand would be futile,” Pellegrini wrote.
Read more: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Pa-court-kicks-back-bid-for-DUI-training-records-1383058.php#ixzz1MiFDcyfj
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