Public Records After Tragedy

Ohio Public Records Briefing - Edition #118

We start this edition with heavy hearts. On July 5, Sgt. Scott Ries of the Rittman Police Department was killed in an ambush while responding to a call for help in Wayne County, and several other officers were wounded. Flags across the state flew at half-staff, and our prayers remain with his family, his department, and every agency that answered that tragic call.

We like to have fun with the Public Records Briefing, but this intro calls for sober reflection on the very real dangers of the work of law enforcement.

This issue, we look at an Ohio Supreme Court decision about a prison inmate’s records requests, one that teaches a lesson about “we don’t keep that here” denials while confirming strong protection for security-sensitive records. From there, we head to Wilmington, Delaware, where the state attorney general released body camera footage of a fatal police shooting while the investigation is still open, and we ask how Ohio law would treat the same release.

And because these things sadly all connect, we close with a reader question from an agency that assisted in Rittman and now faces media requests for its body camera footage.