Pa. Court Orders State Police to Produce Redacted Records to AP

Image via WikipediaThe Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania this week ordered State Police to turn over off-duty work records to the Associated Press under Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law [1 Act of Feb. 14, 2008, P. L. 6, 65 P.S. secs. 67.101-67.3104].

As reported on the Web site of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (www.rcfp.org), the 14-page decision of the Court in Pennsylvania State Troopers Assn. v. Marc Scolforo (Case No. 1623 C.D.2010) said Social Security Numbers, home addresses, and the times and places of the off-duty work by the law enforcement personnel may be redacted, but the records themselves are subject to release under the Right to Know Law.

The State Police Assn. had challenged production of the records, dating back to 2005, citing the Right to Know Law exemptions under  Sec. 708(b)(10)(i)(A) and Sec. 708(b)(17), which exempt records evidencing pre-decisional deliberations and non-criminal investigatory records, respectively. In siding with the earlier decision by the Office of Open Records ordering production of the records, the Court said the Association had not demonstrated state police employees would be subject to substantial and demonstrable harm were the records to become public.