2023 Louisiana Laws › Revised Statutes › Title 44 - Public Records and Recorders › §44:3. Records of prosecutive, investigative, and law enforcement agencies and communications districts

RS 44:3 - Records of prosecutive, investigative, and law enforcement agencies and communications districts
A. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require disclosures of records, or the information contained therein, held by the offices of the attorney general, district attorneys, sheriffs, police departments, Department of Public Safety and Corrections, marshals, investigators, public health investigators, correctional agencies, communications districts, intelligence agencies, Council on Peace Officer Standards and Training, Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice, or publicly owned water districts of the state, which records are:
(1) Records pertaining to pending criminal litigation or any criminal litigation which can be reasonably anticipated, until such litigation has been finally adjudicated or otherwise settled, except as otherwise provided in Subsection F of this Section; or
(2) Records containing the identity of a confidential source of information or records which would tend to reveal the identity of a confidential source of information; or
(3) Records containing security procedures, investigative training information or aids, investigative techniques, investigative technical equipment or instructions on the use thereof, criminal intelligence information pertaining to terrorist-related activity, or threat or vulnerability assessments collected or obtained in the prevention of terrorist-related activity, including but not limited to physical security information, proprietary information, operational plans, and the analysis of such information, or internal security information; or
(4)(a) The records of the arrest of a person, other than the report of the officer or officers investigating a complaint, until a final judgment of conviction or the acceptance of a plea of guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. However, the initial report of the officer or officers investigating a complaint, but not to apply to any followup or subsequent report or investigation, records of the booking of a person as provided in Code of Criminal Procedure Article 228, records of the issuance of a summons or citation, and records of the filing of a bill of information shall be a public record.
(b) The initial report shall set forth:
(i) A narrative description of the alleged offense, including appropriate details thereof as determined by the law enforcement agency.
(ii) The name and identification of each and every person who is a witness to, a suspect charged with, or arrested for the alleged offense, unless prohibited or protected by federal law or state law not contained in this Title.
(iii) The time and date of the alleged offense.
(iv) The location of the alleged offense.
(v) The property involved.
(vi) The vehicles involved.
(vii) The names of investigating officers.
(c) Nothing herein shall be construed to require the disclosure of information which would reveal undercover or intelligence operations.
(d) Repealed by Acts 2018, No. 309, §3.
(5) Records containing the identity of an undercover police officer or records which would tend to reveal the identity of an undercover police officer; or
(6) Records concerning status offenders as defined in the Children's Code.
(7) Collected and maintained by the Louisiana Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information, provided that this exception shall not apply to the central registry of sex offenders maintained by the bureau.
(8) Video or audio recordings generated by law enforcement officer body-worn cameras that are found by the custodian to violate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy.
(a) A body-worn camera is a camera worn on an individual law enforcement officer's person that records and stores audio and video.
(b) Body-worn camera video or audio recordings that are determined by the custodian to violate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy shall be disclosed upon a determination and order from a court of competent jurisdiction pursuant to R.S. 44:35.
(c) All costs of production associated with a court-ordered disclosure shall be set by the court.
(d) Notwithstanding any provision of this Chapter to the contrary, body-worn camera video or audio recordings generated while the law enforcement officer is not acting in the scope of his official duties shall not be subject to disclosure when the disclosure would violate a reasonable expectation of privacy.
B. All records, files, documents, and communications, and information contained therein, pertaining to or tending to impart the identity of any confidential source of information of any of the state officers, agencies, or departments mentioned in Subsection A of this Section, shall be privileged, and no court shall order the disclosure of same except on grounds of due process or constitutional law. No officer or employee of any of the officers, agencies, or departments mentioned in Subsection A of this Section shall disclose said privileged information or produce said privileged records, files, documents, or communications, except on a court order as provided above or with the written consent of the chief officer of the agency or department where he is employed or in which he holds office, and to this end said officer or employee shall be immune from contempt of court and from any and all other criminal penalties for compliance with this Subsection.
C. Whenever the same is necessary, judicial determination pertaining to compliance with this Section or with constitutional law shall be made after a contradictory hearing as provided by law. An appeal by the state or an officer, agency, or department thereof shall be suspensive.
D. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to prevent any and all prosecutive, investigative, and law enforcement agencies and communications districts from having among themselves a free flow of information for the purpose of achieving coordinated and effective criminal justice.
E. Nothing in this Section shall be construed as forbidding the release of all or part of investigative files of fires classified as arson, incendiary, or suspicious unless, after consultation with the appropriate law enforcement agency, any sheriff, district attorney, or other law enforcement agency directs that the records not be disclosed because of pending or anticipated criminal adjudication.
F. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, after a period of ten years has lapsed from the date of death of a person by other than natural causes, and upon approval by the district court having jurisdiction over any criminal prosecution which may result due to the death of such person, any prosecutive, investigative, and other law enforcement agency, or any other governmental agency in possession of investigative files or evidence or potential evidence, or any other record, document, or item relating to said death shall, upon request, provide copies of all such files, records, and documents to immediate family members of the victim and shall provide unlimited access for any and all purposes to all such evidence, potential evidence, and other items to any member of the immediate family and to any person or persons whom any member of the immediate family has designated for such purposes. The access granted shall include but not be limited to the examination, inspection, photographing, copying, testing, making impressions, and the use in any court proceeding of and conducting forensic studies on such evidence, potential evidence, and other items. For the purposes of this Subsection, the term "immediate family" shall mean the surviving spouse, children, grandchildren, and siblings of the victim.
G. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require disclosures of certificates of official driving records in the custody and control of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, office of motor vehicles, except as specifically provided for in R.S. 15:521.
H. Nothing in this Section shall be construed as prohibiting the release of any report resulting from a request for an investigation of an alleged violation of the crime of identity theft as defined under the provisions of R.S. 14:67.16 to the victim of such alleged crime. However, the information which shall be released to such victim shall be limited to that information required to be released under the provisions of R.S. 14:67.16(H)(2).
I. All requests for production of video or audio recordings generated by law enforcement officer body-worn cameras shall be incident specific and shall include reasonable specificity as to the date, time, location, or persons involved. A request for multiple incidents shall include reasonable specificity as to the date, time, location, or persons involved in each incident requested. The custodian may deny a request not containing reasonable specificity.
J.(1) Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require the disclosure of information which would reveal the name, address, contact information, or identity of a victim of a sex offense or a human trafficking-related offense as those terms are defined in R.S. 46:1844.
(2) Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require the disclosure of information which would reveal the name, address, contact information, or identity of a crime victim who at the time of the commission of the offense is a minor under eighteen years of age.
(3) Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require the disclosure of information which would reveal the address or contact information of a victim of a crime against a family member, household member, or dating partner. "Family member" and "household member" shall have the same definitions as in R.S. 46:2132 and "dating partner" shall have the same definition as in R.S. 46:2151.
K.(1) Unless prohibited by federal law or state law not contained in this Title, if a victim of an offense or his designated family member requests an opportunity to review or copy any portion of records related to the offense against the victim, the agency shall allow the victim or his designated family member to review and copy the records unless the agency certifies in writing that the matter is subject to actual or reasonably anticipated criminal litigation.
(2) Any document that an agency provides to any defendant after prosecution of an offense has been initiated shall, upon request from the victim or a designated family member, also be made available for review and copying by the requestor unless the agency certifies in writing that the records are being withheld because information in them could materially affect the prosecution or a related investigation.
(3) Nothing in this Subsection shall be construed to prohibit an agency from in its discretion allowing a victim of an offense or his family member to review or copy any record related to the offense, provided the agency determines it would not reasonably impair any ongoing investigation or prosecution.
(4) For purposes of this Subsection, "designated family member" and "victim" have the same meanings as that provided by R.S. 46:1842.
Amended by Acts 1972, No. 448, §1; Acts 1978, No. 313, §1; Acts 1978, No. 686, §1; Acts 1979, No. 336, §1; Acts 1983, No. 247, §1; Acts 1984, No. 945, §1; S.C.R. No. 139, 1985 R.S.; Acts 1986, No. 785, §1; Acts 1988, No. 438, §1; Acts 1990, No. 59, §§2 and 3, eff. June 26, 1990; Acts 1990, No. 218, §1, eff. July 2, 1990; Acts 1991, No. 86, §1; Acts 1995, No. 519, §1, eff. June 18, 1995; Acts 1999, No. 484, §1, eff. June 18, 1999; Acts 1999, No. 1189, §1; Acts 2002, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 128, §4; Acts 2003, No. 631, §2; Acts 2003, No. 844, §3; Acts 2003, No. 1197, §1; Acts 2016, No. 525, §1; Acts 2017, No. 272, §3, eff. June 16, 2017; Acts 2018, No. 309, §§1, 3; Acts 2021, No. 158, §5; Acts 2022, No. 630, §1.