Police Officer Records Deemed Secret

The court ruled 6 to 1 that the public may not have access to police discipline records filed during administrative appeals, including the names of officers who have been terminated, unless the officers waive their rights to privacy.

The decision is expected to shut down public access to information about officers who come before civil service commissions, civilian review boards and other panels that hear police discipline cases.

The ruling does not, however, automatically close records in cases that go to Superior Court. "That will be the next battleground," said Deputy San Diego County Counsel William H. Songer, who represented the county in a lawsuit brought by the media.

As a result of Thursday's decision, "We have pretty much of a secret police force in this state," said Tom Newton, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. He said the ruling frowned upon even disclosing the names of officers involved in shootings.

Duke Law School professor Erwin Chemerinsky, a longtime police reform leader who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, called the ruling "a stunning loss for the public and the right to know."

"It is very far-reaching," said Chemerinsky, a member of a board that studied the Rampart police scandal. "This is just a tremendous loss in the ability to check up on what police officers are doing."

Everett L. Bobbitt, who represented the San Diego police and sheriff deputies association in the case, agreed that the ruling will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the public to learn about officers who have committed misconduct.

Referring to the media, he said, "You are going to have to go back to your sources, you know, people who talk out of turn, which you guys do a good job of."

He said the police unions have sought privacy to prevent criminal defense lawyers from scouring public records for dirt on officers who are witnesses in cases.

"It is in the public interest not to have your police officers run through the wringer on many times bogus information," Bobbitt said.

Although the state high court did not specifically rule on whether appeal hearings must be closed to the public, all the case law cited in the decision means "there is no way you are going to get there," Bobbitt said.