Court Opinion

ID: 9774418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:19:54.533063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:08.248012
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
The central issue in this appeal is whether a routine incident report completed by a trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) qualifies under the criminal investigation records exemption found in Section 708(b)(16) of the Right-to-Know Law (RTKL).1 Because an incident report does not qualify as criminal investigative material, I respectfully dissent.
Pursuant to the RTKL, a record in the possession of a Commonwealth agency such as the PSP is presumed to be public and subject to disclosure unless the agency proves by a preponderance of the evidence that it is exempt under Section 708, exempt under other Federal or State law, or protected by privilege. 65 P.S. §§ 67.305(a), 67.708(a)(1). The exemption for criminal investigative materials is found at Section 708(b)(16), which provides in pertinent part:
(b) Exceptions. — Except as provided in subsections (c) and (d), the following are exempt from access by a requester under this act:
(16) A record of an agency relating to or resulting in a criminal investigation, including:
(iii) Investigative materials, notes, correspondence, videos and reports.
This paragraph shall not apply to information contained in a police blotter as defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 9102....
65 P.S. § 67.708(b)(16). In its Final Determination, the Office of Open Records (OOR) granted requester’s appeal and directed the PSP to release an unredacted copy of the incident report because, pursuant to this Court’s opinions in Commonwealth v. Mines, 680 A.2d 1227 (Pa. Cmwlth.1996), and Tapco, Inc. v. Township of Neville, 695 A.2d 460 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1997), incident reports are equivalent to police blotters, which are not part of the criminal investigative exemption. Unlike the majority, I would require the PSP to release a copy of the incident report to requester because the incident report does not qualify as part of the agency’s criminal investigative materials and is not exempt from public access.
As the Commonwealth agency which received the right-to-know request, the burden was on the PSP to prove by a preponderance of the evidence why the requested record was exempt. In its initial denial letter, the PSP merely stated that the requested incident report qualified as a criminal investigative record and was, therefore, exempt under Section 708(b)(16) of the RTKL. The PSP provided no guidance as to why the report qualified as investigative material or what specific information included in the report was not subject to public access. The OOR’s appeals officer sent a letter to the *484PSP inviting the agency to provide additional information or evidence to support its allegation that the incident report was not merely a police blotter, and how releasing the names of the actors and victims involved in the incident would “result in substantial and demonstrable risk of physical harm to or personal security of the victim.” The PSP responded by submitting a letter in which it simply disputed that the incident report was the equivalent of a police blotter. However, the PSP failed to provide any additional reasoning why this particular incident report was an investigation, not merely the equivalent of a police blotter.
As a preliminary matter, the burden was on the PSP, as the agency responding to the right-to-know request, to make a showing of why the report qualified as part of a criminal investigation rather than a police blotter, or why sensitive information in the report could not be redacted. Simply because a form is entitled “incident report” does not mean that it relates to an actual criminal investigation as required to meet the exemption. For example, if a police officer responds to the scene of a routine automobile accident which does not involve injuries or lead to an investigation into potential criminal wrong-doing, he or she will later complete a write-up outlining that an incident occurred. This report may very well be called an incident report by that officer and his or her department, but because it did not relate to or result in a criminal investigation, it would not fit the exemption found in Section 708(b)(16) of the RTKL. The PSP should have explained in its denial to requester and the resulting appeal to the OOR exactly how and why the incident report at issue in this case qualified as criminal investigative material rather than making the blanket assertion that every single incident report generated by its troopers fit the exemption, regardless of content.
The specific incident report at issue in this case contains very little information, and I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that it falls in the category of investigative material. The terms “incident” and “investigation” are not, by any means, synonymous and connote varying levels of police involvement. The term “investigate” is defined as “to observe or study by close examination and systematic inquiry; to make a systematic examination; to conduct an official inquiry.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 659 (11th ed.2004). By its definition, the term implies detailed observation and inquiry over a period of time, which would amount to a high level of police involvement or activity. On the contrary, the term “incident” implies a one-time encounter, as it is defined as “a discrete occurrence or happening.” Black’s Law Dictionary (8th ed.2004). The incident report at issue does not document a criminal investigation. The report contains the names and addresses of the actors involved, a synopsis of what the trooper observed and was told, and statements of the victims and a witness. It is merely the initial form the trooper fills out to show the “who, what, where and when” that any observer of the scene could discern without investigation. In short, it merely recounts the particular incident that the trooper responded to on this occasion. It does not, as the majority argues, document the trooper’s investigation of a criminal case or outline his official inquiry.
In addition, exemptions from disclosure under the RTKL must be narrowly construed. See Bowling v. Office of Open Records, 990 A.2d 813, 824 (Pa.Cmwlth. 2010) (citations omitted). Reports which merely relay the happenings of a particular incident to which police respond are commonly made available upon request. It would be an absurd result if the new RTKL, which was “designed to promote *485access to official government information in order to prohibit secrets, scrutinize the actions of public officials, and make public officials accountable for their actions,” instead restricted public access to these readily available documents by now making them exempt from disclosure. Id.
The PSP does not dispute that “police blotters,” which are expressly excluded from the investigative exception, no longer exist and incident reports have supplanted them. If investigative material seeps into the incident report or other matter contained in the report is protected, the PSP is not authorized to withhold the entire document but may redact those portions that are subject to the investigative or personal exception. 65 P.S. § 67.706.
Given these reasons, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the incident report qualified as criminal investigative material and was, therefore, exempt from public access, and I respectfully dissent.

. Act of February 14, 2008, P.L. 6, 65 P.S. § 67.708(b)(16).