Court Opinion

ID: 9633644
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:55:27.782009+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:39.147510
License: Public Domain

Dolliver, J.
(dissenting) — While I agree with the views of the majority regarding the use of the privacy test of Hearst Corp. v. Hoppe, 90 Wn.2d 123, 580 P.2d 246 (1978), and the personal information exception in RCW 42.17-.310(1) (b), I must dissent from the result reached based on the application of RCW 42.17.310(l)(d). I believe the viewpoint of the majority undermines the purpose of the public disclosure laws by preventing public access to information concerning government activities.
The analysis of any portion of the public disclosure laws must begin with the fundamental policy stated in the act:
[MJindful of the right of individuals to privacy and of the desirability of the efficient administration of government, *735full access to information concerning the conduct of government on every level must be assured as a fundamental and necessary precondition to the sound governance of a free society.
RCW 42.17.010(11). The public disclosure act is a strongly worded mandate for broad disclosure of public records. Laborers Int'l, Local 374 v. Aberdeen, 31 Wn. App. 445, 449, 642 P.2d 418, review denied, 97 Wn.2d 1024 (1982). The purpose of the act is to promote full access to public records, to assure continuing public confidence in governmental processes, and to assure the public interest will be fully protected. To further this end, the provisions of the act are to be interpreted liberally, and the statutory exceptions from disclosure must be construed narrowly. RCW 42.17.010(11); Hearst Corp. v. Hoppe, supra at 128; Columbian Pub'g Co. v. Vancouver, 36 Wn. App. 25, 28, 671 P.2d 280 (1983). The burden of proof is on the agency seeking to prevent disclosure to demonstrate the requested information falls within an exception. RCW 42.17.340(1); Hearst Corp., at 130.
The exception contained in section (l)(d) is a narrow one. The statute exempts:
Specific intelligence information and specific investigative records compiled by investigative, law enforcement, and penology agencies, and state agencies vested with the responsibility to discipline members of any profession, the nondisclosure of which is essential to effective law enforcement or for the protection of any person's right to privacy.
RCW 42.17.310(l)(d). If this case concerned "[s]pecific intelligence information and specific investigative records" compiled by the police agencies involved, I would agree with the result reached by the majority. But this is not the case. The information sought here concerns the misconduct of agency employees, unrelated to the normal criminal investigations contemplated by the statute. There is no reason to include these personnel matters relating to job performance within the definition of "specific investigative records" simply because the records involve law enforce*736ment personnel.
Furthermore, even if the personal information could be classified as intelligence information and investigative records, the law enforcement agencies have not satisfied their burden to prove the withholding of this information is "essential to law enforcement" within the meaning of the statute. The agencies primarily rely upon the "code of silence" argument: disclosure might have a chilling effect upon the reporting of violations. The evidence in the record, however, fails to support this assertion. First, it is important to realize the information sought on appeal is the names of the officers alone, not those of the complainants or witnesses. Thus, any arguments based upon complainants' desires for confidentiality are without force in this case. The testimony at trial indicated it was rare for the officers not to know the names of the complainants against them, nor would the complainants be more reluctant to come forward if their names were publicly disclosed. Further, the "code of silence" argument assumes the officers themselves are currently a significant source of complaints against other officers, even though no support for this assertion is offered by the record. The record does indicate hundreds of complaints are filed by private citizens, including many if not most of the complaints at issue here. There was no evidence that public disclosure of the name of the officer involved would have an effect on the submission of this type of complaint.
Contrary to the majority, I believe it is the disclosure of these names which is "essential to effective law enforcement", rather than their concealment. It is important for the public to know how their law enforcement employees are performing their official duties and to know whether the standards within these agencies are being maintained and enforced. Disclosure of the names of officers involved in misconduct in the performance of their official duties would add credibility to the public's perception of the police internal affairs process.
In Columbian Pub'g Co. v. Vancouver, supra at 31, the *737(l)(d) exception was found not to apply under very similar circumstances. At issue was a newspaper's request to the city manager of Vancouver for a copy of statements of police officers regarding the performance of the police chief. The statements had led to a vote of no confidence by the police officers' union, then copies had been given to the city manager, for him to discuss with the officers and the police chief. The court affirmed the trial court's order for the city to disclose the information, stating:
We recognize that the Vancouver Police Department, when carrying out its law enforcement responsibilities, is [a law enforcement] agency. But even when we recognize [the city manager's] ultimate, but tenuous, law enforcement supervisory duties, in this case he was certainly not conducting the kind of investigation that the exemption requires. As we said in Laborers Int'l Union, Local 374 v. Aberdeen, 31 Wn. App. at 448, the "records were not compiled as a result of a specific investigation focusing with special intensity upon a particular party." This is purely a personnel matter, not an investigation in the intended sense, i.e., one designed to ferret out criminal activity or to shed light on some other allegation of malfeasance. Finally, the nondisclosure of the statements was not, as we have said, essential to the protection of anyone's right to privacy, nor was it essential to effective law enforcement as the exemption requires. Construing this exemption narrowly, as again we must, we find no error.
Columbian, at 31. I see no reason not to adopt the same conclusion here.
Since neither the Hearst privacy test nor the RCW 42.17.310(1) (b) personal information exception has been found to apply here, we should not allow these same exceptions to be given effect through the back door by grafting them into the language of RCW 42.17.310(1) (d). RCW 42.17.340(2) provides:
Courts shall take into account the policy of this chapter that free and open examination of public records is in the public interest, even though such examination may cause inconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others. . . .
*738Any consideration, however beneficially motivated, of potential negative impact on the officers involved here is not appropriate under the statute. Given this strong policy statement, and our established rule to construe any exceptions narrowly, I cannot agree the language of RCW 42.17-.310(1) (d) should be interpreted so broadly as to prevent disclosure of the names of these officers. The agencies have not sustained their burden to prove this information falls within the exception. I dissent.
Utter and Goodloe, JJ., concur with Dolliver, J.
Reconsideration denied March 7, 1988.