Utah County record keepers might want to look north and find out what its big brother is doing.

The Utah County Attorney's Office has denied a request from Hilarie Orman, of the Spanish Fork News, to review two police reports. One is a report on a trespassing case. The other case is from a motorcycle crash. They're not exactly the crimes of the centuries.

Yet the attorney's office claims both reports meet the definition of a "protected" record under the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act. There are legitimate grounds for classifying a record as protected, but I can't figure out how Orman's desired reports would enter that category.*

Where police reports are concerned, GRAMA allows for the protection of ongoing cases. Both of Orman's cases are closed.

Government bodies also can protect records which, if released, would threaten someone's safety. That would have to be some trespassing case and motorcycle crash if that were the issue here.

Orman is not giving up. She has filed an appeal with the Utah County Commission in the hope it will order the sheriff's office to release the records.

The county commission can review a case decided by the State Records Committee. The committee decided police reports are public records and ordered the reports released.

— NC

* I am not an attorney and frequently remind myself of that.

Labels: GRAMA, State Records Committee