The Indiana Publisher

March 2020 Page 5 Traci L. Miller The Herald Bulletin (Anderson) ANDERSON — Police officers across Madison County are sworn to enforce the law. But almost all of the departments, themselves, fail every day to comply with a public access law that's been on the books for nearly three decades. Indiana requires law enforce- ment agencies to maintain a daily record of crimes, accidents and complaints with specific details listed. The law also mandates that these records, often referred to as "daily incident logs," be made available to the public. The agencies in Madison County and the Indiana State Police, however, are not producing daily incident logs for public review. After working unsuccessfully with attorneys and law enforcement for several months to obtain the records daily, The Herald Bulletin filed a formal complaint on Feb. 21 with the Indiana Public Access Counselor's Office. A response from the state agency is expected by April 8. Steve Key, attorney for the Hoosier State Press Association, noted that state statute regarding maintenance of law enforcement records available to the public has existed since 1992. "This is not the reporter's access law," Key said. "This is the public's access to information." Such records have been provided for transparency and used by the public to evaluate trends and efficiencies in response times by agencies and the distribution of resources by departments, Key explained. Public law enforcement records have also been used by civil rights groups monitoring possible bias based on race and gender. Required records include a variety of information, such as response times to emergencies and crime calls. "There can be policy reasons the public may have an interest in seeing how their community is being protected or how the police are treating members of their community," Key said. The Herald Bulletin began asking for daily incident logs, outlined under Indiana Code 5-14-3-5 ©, from local police departments at the end of October. Anderson Police Maj. Joel Sandefur said his department did not maintain the requested records and sent the request to Anderson City Attorney Paul Podlejski, who sent a Nov. 15 message to The Herald Bulletin, explaining that the APD was working on the request and meeting with other officials. Four days later, Sheriff Scott Mellinger contacted The Herald Bulletin and said that as far as he could determine, no law enforce- ment department in the state complies with the legal requirement to provide the daily public records. The Herald Bulletin continued to seek updates for the next two months from APD and the Madison County Sheriff's Department before sending an official request for daily incident logs to law Law enforcement fails to honor public access laws Anderson police officers work the scene of a shooting in May 2017. Police agencies in Indiana are required by law to provide reports about such incidents in a daily log. Herald Bulletin file photo. A traditional function of the press is to serve as a watchdog to government agencies, and an important component of that is agencies' compliance with laws backing the public's right to know. To celebrate this function of the free press, the American Society of News Editors launched the first national Sunshine Week in 2005. This year, Sunshine Week begins today and runs through March 21. The week intentionally coincides with the March 16 birthday of James Madison, who was a key advocate of the Bill of Rights and for whom our county is named. Herald Bulletin crime reporter Traci Miller in today's edition reports on areas where law enforcement falls short of providing information that is legally required to be available to the public. Throughout the history of journalism, the press has had to nurture a close working relation- ship with government agencies while also being a thorn in their side, all in the name of preserv- ing the public record. Transparency of law enforcement agencies is important on several levels. Arrests and prosecutions are public record to ensure that the justice system is held account- able to the public that it serves. All citizens are innocent until proven guilty, and no portion of that process can unfold in secret. Transparency is also important because citizens have a right to know how their tax money is being spent. As such, police activity should be made known to the public. It is important to note that we take up this cause not for the sake of badgering the police, but rather to serve the public interest. This Sunshine Week, we are reminded that we the press function as the eyes, ears and voice of our readers. – The Herald Bulletin (Anderson) Madison County agencies, state police are not producing daily incident logs for public review Editorial The press carries the light for the people See Access, page 10

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