First Amendment advocates enter battle to make police disciplinary files public

A coalition of media groups is formally opposing an effort by a San Bernardino County sheriff’s union to block the release of police disciplinary files under a new transparency law set to take effect Jan. 1.

The group, led by the First Amendment Coalition, filed papers Friday, Dec. 28, with the state Supreme Court opposing what it described as the union’s last-ditch attempt to “gut” the law. The move came about two weeks after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Employees Benefit Association asked the high court to ban the retroactive release of files, leaving secret the records about incidents that occurred before Jan. 1, 2019.

The request from San Bernardino centers on timing. Mike Rains, the attorney representing the union, said that because the law doesn’t specifically detail the time period that records should be public it should apply only to new incidents.

The First Amendment Coalition contends that the Legislature intended the statute to tell the public about police misconduct, old and new. California has the strictest restraints in the nation on the release of law enforcement records, with police secrecy laws dating back 40 years.

The new law, introduced by state Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, is considered an attempt to tear down the veil of secrecy. Portions of personnel files could be made public for officers involved in shootings, serious injury, sustained sexual assault and sustained misconduct.

The San Bernardino County union is seeking to keep the past under wraps.

“It’s clear this is not what the Legislature intended with this sweeping and landmark legislation,” said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.

“Obviously, the Legislature wanted to open up police misconduct files, irrespective of when they were created. The police union’s rushed and last-minute effort should be promptly denied by the Supreme Court. The public deserves to see these records and has a legal right to do so as of January 1.”

Joining the coalition in the effort are the Los Angeles Times, KQED, and the California News Publishers Association.

The fight against the release of files is not only going on in court. The city of Inglewood recently voted to destroy thousands of police personnel files dating beyond the five-year state mandate for storing records.