Personal Phones and Pregnancy
Ohio Public Records Briefing - Edition #86
How are we a third of the way done with 2025? Sometimes, don’t you wish you could make time stop!
But hey, if time stopped, you wouldn’t get this new edition of your Public Records Briefing. So let’s leave time alone!
Exceptions A thru ZZ to 149.43
Last week, we discussed the exception for records submitted to and produced by the fetal-infant mortality review board, which is a multi-agency program that identifies and studies infant mortality issues by reviewing fetal deaths.
This week, we’re discussing a similar type of board that the Public Records Act also protects: the pregnancy-associated mortality review board. The board was established by the Ohio Department of Health to identify and review pregnancy-associated deaths in Ohio, with the goal of preventing maternal mortality.
R.C. 149.43(A)(1)(ll) protects all records and information submitted to the board, as well as the board’s work product and the board’s statements during board meetings.
Most police agencies and local government officials won’t need to deal with this exception, but we’re covering all of them!
Body Cam News Review
As we prepare each edition, we look for interesting or timely body cam footage. We almost analyzed this one but it’s too wacky even for us! Here’s a better one:
Police in Idaho were recently called to the home of an autistic 17-year-old body after he got into an altercation with family members and was waving a knife. Officers arrived while the teen was lying in the family’s fenced-in front yard, fumbling with the knife. Officers yelled at the boy from behind the fence to drop the knife. When the boy started to stand up and approach the officers, they opened fire, with two of the boy’s family members standing just off to the side. The boy, who was nonverbal and also suffered from cerebral palsy, tragically died.