PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth Police Department did not violate the state’s public records law when it denied an apartment complex’s request for reports and dispatch log entries regarding a prospective tenant, the Rhode Island attorney general’s office has ruled.
The complaint to the attorney general was brought by Meghan Gill, property manager for West Broadway Associates (WBA), an affordable apartment complex for the elderly in Newport.
According to the Nov. 6 ruling signed by Malena Lopez Mora, special assistant attorney general, Ms. Gill contended that she had a “duty to (her) current tenants to ensure that all prospective applicants will not create an issue or disturbance.”
According to Ms. Gill, Police Lt. A.J. Bucci denied her request for the reports and dispatch logs involving the prospective tenant, identified only as “John Doe” in the ruling.
In response to the complaint, the attorney general received a “substantive” response from Town Solicitor Kevin Gavin, who stated that Lt. Bucci denied the request for the following reasons:
• “Disclosure of the records could reasonable be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
• “Disclosure would deprive a person of a right to fair trial or an impartial adjudication.”
In her ruling, Ms. Mora points out that both exceptions are found in the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA).
“It is the department’s position that Lt. Bucci acted properly in evaluating the request and applying the appropriate balancing test, which resulted in his determination that the records sought by Ms. Gill in this case were exempt from public disclosure under APRA,” Ms. Mora wrote.
Her ruling went on to state: “This department has consistently held that when an arrest has not taken place, there is a presumption that incident reports are exempt from public disclosure.”
In addition, Ms. Gill failed to present any overriding “public interest” reason for the records to be disclosed, according to the ruling.
“Not only do we question whether the incident report(s) shed light on how government operates, but the report contains personal and sensitive information,” stated Ms. Mora. “The privacy interests therefore outweigh any interest the public may have in disclosure of such a report, particularly given the presumptive nature of an incident report that does not culminate in an arrest.”
You can read the complete ruling here.