The Salt Lake City Police Department has written a four-page policy on how the new Pioneer Park cameras are to be used.

A PDF of that policy can be found here.

The policy does not address what happens when someone outside the police department wants a copy of the video.

When I asked police Chief Chris Burbank about this Wednesday, he described the recordings as "private" information, similar to that of calls to a police dispatcher.

But I have received copies of Salt Lake City dispatch recordings before via a GRAMA request.

Martha Stonebrook, a senior attorney for the city, gave a more-measured response when I called her Wednesday. She said requests would be reviewed on a "case-by-case basis." That's in tune with GRAMA.

The law says records are public unless they are expressly exempt from disclosure. The catch is there are lots of statutes that can be interpreted — correctly as not — as closing a record. Hypothetically, the city could deny record requests for video footage and argue the footage invades someone's personal privacy.*

But that would seem to play into the hands of the ACLU, which has made a similar argument against having cameras at all.

The city may be on firmer ground if someone requested footage of a suspected crime. GRAMA makes exemptions for evidence in a criminal case.

— NC


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

Labels: Crime, GRAMA, Police, SLC

Salt Lake County released a stinging report this past week that describes its planning division as "beset with long-rooted dysfunction that will require significant efforts to correct."

While the Tribune summarized those findings in Wednesday's newspaper, detailing what investigators characterized as a culture ofmismanagement, readers wanted to know more. So here's the full text of the investigatory report that has led County Mayor Peter Corroon to call for reform:


Planning__Development_Services_Report.pdf


--JS

Labels: GRAMA, SLC

The other newspaper in town praised the Salt Lake City government initiative to be more transparent. Meanwhile, I can't see in from my office.

Every time I try to load www.transparencyslcgov.com from The Tribune newsroom, I receive an error message saying the server is not responding. So last night, between interviewing refinery fire evacuees, I tried loading the page from a computer in the teacher's lounge at Woods Cross High School.

What do you know? It turns out Salt Lake City really does have a "transparency" page. (I saved the page as a PDF and attached it below.)

I can only assume there's some problem on my end, but this still seems strange. As a crime reporter, I've visited everything from Websites advertising prostitutes to instructions for making crack cocaine and I've never had a Web page everyone can access but me.

— NC

Salt%20Lake%20City%20Transparency%20-%20Home.pdf

Labels: SLC

The junta commander in the People's Republic of Salt Lake City, Ralph Becker, on Tuesday pledged his government would be more accessible to the citizens.

Becker rolled out a plan to go "Wiki" by posting more documents online and foster more public input. For articles about the plan, go here or go here.

The initiative has the blessing of the Republic's high priest for open government, Joel Campbell, an assistant professor of communications at Brigham Young University.


This is how some people think the town is still governed.

But some want more. Neighborhood activist Polly Hart raised the issue of what happens once the people have their say.

"I thought this was going to be about how administrative decisions are made. I'm still not finding out."

One obvious problem: The new Website, www.transparencyslcgov.com, would not open for me this morning.

— NC

Labels: SLC

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker says he is planning to bring more transparency to city government.

The plan will be unveiled next month. The initiative received a mention in Monday's Tribune.

Also, Joel Campbell, an assistant professor of communications at Brigham Young University, wrote this Monday on his Facebook page.

Salt Lake City will announce a new "Transparency for Collaborative Policy Development" on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 10 a.m. to noon at City and County Building, 451 S. State. The initiative will look at how the public can be more aware, involved and have more input into city operations. A key part of this is changing the city government culture with relation to GRAMA and open meetings. I have had the opportunity to be a consultant on the project and hope it will be a model for other governments in Utah. I believe that the Becker administration is committed to rethinking openness, transparency and citizen involvement in government.

— NC

Labels: SLC

The Salt Lake City Mayor’s Records Appeals Board hears records cases involving that city's government. For an official agenda and information about accommodations and attending electronically, click here.

The Salt Lake City Mayor’s Records Appeals Board will hold a public meeting 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, in Room 542 of the City & County Building, 451 S. State St.

Agenda:

Convene in open meeting for the purpose of reviewing the appeal by Roger Bryner in regards to a denial of records by the Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office.

Approx. 10:30 a.m. Meeting will adjourn to go into a closed meeting pursuant to the provision of UCA, Section 52-4-205(1) of the Open and Public Meetings Act.

Approx. 11:00 a.m. Reconvene in public meeting

Approx. 11:05 a.m. Adjourn

— NC

Labels: GRAMA, SLC

For the official agenda, information about accommodations, electronic attendance and submitting written comment, click here.

The State Records Committee will hold a meeting on 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct, 9. The meeting will be held in the Courtyard Meeting Room, the Archives Building, 346 South Rio Grande Street (450 West), Salt Lake City.

Committee business and three hearings have been scheduled:

* First Hearing – Jim Garside vs. Salt Lake City. Mr. Garside is appealing the denial of a copy of a joint defense agreement between Salt Lake City and Big Cottonwood Lower Canal Company.

* Second Hearing – Steve Onysko vs. Environmental Quality. Mr. Onysko is appealing the denial of documentation of communications about him and his work in the Division of Drinking Water at Environmental Quality.

* Third Hearing – Mark Haik vs. UDOT. Mr. Haik is appealing the denial of records relating to a city street map prepared by the Utah Department of Transportation in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

* Approval of the August 14, 2008, meeting minutes of the State Records Committee

* Appeals received: A summary of cases reviewed for a hearing during the month will be presented to the Committee.

* Adjournment – Next meeting scheduled – Thursday, November 13, 2008

— NC

Labels: GRAMA, SLC, State Records Committee

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank has seven friends.

At least, that's what his department's MySpace page said this morning, a few minutes after the I received an e-mail announcing the creation of the site.

Right now, the page is pretty blank. But in the release, Burbank promises "pictures, videos and blogs about and by the more than 700 men and women of the Department on our MySpace page.”

Ooh. I can hardly wait.

In the meantime, if you're considering "friending" the SLCPD, you might also consider what that means — they'll be able to access all your photos, blogs entries, music and a list of all your other MySpace posse members.

I'm not saying you've got anything to hide, but do you really want Burbank leafing through all those photos you took in Cancun last summer?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

-mdl

Labels: Police, SLC, spotlight site, technology

Twice this week, Tribune justice reporters had problems obtaining the most basic information about a victim: a name.

These weren't any victims. They were children. The respective police agencies thought that meant they should not just give out the information.

In the first case, a 17-year-old girl died in an ATV crash in Sanpete County. The sheriff's office declined to release her name and suggested we watch the obituaries. A central Utah radio station reported the name and I confirmed it with a telephone call to the teenager's family.


The second case was a 17-month-old girl who drowned in Sugar House Park. Salt Lake City police declined to give us the girl's name over the telephone, as they do most adult victims, and suggested we file an open-records request. I then spoke with an attorney for the city who told me I should file a record request when it's suggested I do so, but read me the name in this instance.


Government agencies are reluctant to discuss children, and I understand why. It's human nature to protect kids. Lawmakers in Utah and most states have codified the instinct by closing to the public documents in child welfare matters and some juvenile court cases. News outlets are protective, too. The Tribune typically does not name child victims or even criminal suspects who are children as the newspaper would adults.

But it's a different matter when a child dies. Utah law does not require a dead child name's be kept secret. Neither does federal law.

In 2006, the National Park Service refused to release the names of child drowning victims on Lake Powell. The Tribune made administrative appeals and it resulted in the Park Service making agency-wide regulations requiring name disclosure.


************************

And now some easy news

A few weeks ago, I wrote the city governments of Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan, Orem, Provo, Cedar City and St. George and asked for any audits, conducted within the last two years, on their respective fire and police departments.

The requests were answered on time with the cities providing me the documents or telling me where I could find them. Yeah, so I didn't exactly ask for the Pentagon Papers, but with that many towns, I figured there would be one holdout and there was not.

-- nc

Labels: FOIA, GRAMA, secrecy, SLC

I'm typing this on Wednesday night, just after I filed the article about the latest batch of documents from the Trolley Square shootings. Here's the background on how we acquired the reports and photographs.

In January, the Salt Lake City police department released its final report on the shootings. We here at The Tribune wanted the source material for that report and figured since the shootings were officially a closed case, we could have access under GRAMA. On Jan. 17, I filed a GRAMA request with the police department.

My request is summarized below... in the police department's denial letter. You'll see the department had arguments for why the documents should be kept out of public view.

I respectfully disagreed and filed a letter of appeal found below. On March 27, the Salt Lake City Corp. appeals board heard my case. I was accompanied by Tribune justice editor Elizabeth Neff while the police department was represented by an attorney as well as two police detectives who offered explanations for why the documents should be withheld.

My specific legal arguments aside, The Tribune's philosophical argument went like this: The police department's final report only tells us what it thought was important or wanted to say. We want our own access to the information about Sulejman Talovic, his victims and the killings.

The police department and the city's philosophical argument was essentially: We have provided information to the public about Trolley Square. Releasing additional information can expose our investigative techniques and cause more emotional harm to everyone involved.

The appeal board's ruling found agreements and disagreements with all the arguments and reasons to release some records and not others.

This hasn't been the first disagreement over records related to the Trolley Square shootings. The parents of slain victim Vanessa Quinn have gone to federal appeals court trying to obtain a report from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This may not be the last time The Tribune asks for records related to the shooting either. There are still things we want to know about the shootings. We don't know if anyone has that information, but we're not ready to stop looking.


TrolleyGRAMAappealSLC.pdf

hppscan53.pdf


-- nc

Labels: GRAMA, SLC

This blog probably will write a lot about the problems with Utah's records and meeting laws. So my first post is about something Utah does well: You don't have to settle for a no.

Or at least not right away. Utah provides an appeals process far superior to any state I've found. If you request a record from a Utah agency -- such as a city, a county or a state agency -- and that agency denies you, the agency then must provide you an appeal option. Some agencies, such as Salt Lake City government, have entire boards to hear your appeal while other agencies allow you to appeal to an administrator.

If that board or administrator rules against your appeal, you're still not done. You have the option of appealing to the State Records Committee. If you lose at that committee, you have one more option: you can sue in state court. (A similar appeals process exists for the agency which received the request if the agency thinks your documents should not be disclosed.)

I worked in Missouri for three years and if an agency there denies your request, your only option is to sue. Lawsuits are expensive even if you win. Government agencies know that and it gives them an incentive to deny your request.

In November, The Tribune published an investigation on college drug testing that used record requests in 39 states. Among the schools who denied my request, only the University of Nebraska told me I had an administrative appeal option. (I did not pursue it.)

What makes an administrative appeal option so good for us citizens? Well, it's one thing for an agency to deny a record request. It's another thing for the agency to stand in public and justify the denial. Utah's appeals process keeps a lot of records cases out of court and gives a fighting chance to the little guys.

— NC

Labels: GRAMA, SLC, State Records Committee