Valley Brook refuses to release police report on detention of Oklahoma City police officer

Valley Brook officials are refusing a television station's request for a copy of a police report on an incident involving an Oklahoma City police officer.

Oklahoma City Detective Chuck Wheeler says he was detained by Valley Brook police for more than three hours last month, according to KOKH-TV Fox 25.

The Oklahoma City station reports that Wheeler is suing Valley Brook for wrongful arrest.

Even though Wheeler was not booked into jail, he asked his own department for an investigation to confirm that he had done nothing wrong. As part of that investigation, Oklahoma City police requested a report on the incident from Valley Brook police.

When Fox 25 reporter/anchor Britten Follett requested a copy of the report from Valley Brook, she was told it was not ready. When she returned several days later, she was told the report was unavailable because the incident was "still under investigation."

Valley Brook City Attorney Bob Thompson later denied her request, claiming the report is not a public record because Wheeler was not arrested and the report is a personnel matter written at the request of Oklahoma City police.

None of the three reasons seems to comply with the state Open Records Act.

No. 1: The statute requires that certain records kept by the law enforcement agency be made available for public inspection and copying regardless of whether an investigation is completed.

Those records include the "initial offense report information showing the offense, date, time, general location, officer and a brief summary of what occurred." (OKLA. STAT. tit. 51, § 24A.8(A)(3))

No. 2: Police incident reports not involving an arrest are open to the public under legislation that took effect Nov. 1.

House Bill 1049 rectified a 2005 amendment to the Open Records Act that police departments had interpreted as allowing the release of incident reports only pertaining to an arrest.

No. 3: Valley Brook is claiming the exemption for personnel records, but Wheeler isn't an employee of Valley Brook. The exemption's language clearly applies to records related a public body's own personnel.

Valley Brook police created an incident report. What Oklahoma City officials have done with the record seems irrelevant when the police report is requested from Valley Brook.

State Attorney General Drew Edmondson has emphasized that access to police information does not depend on the record title used by the law enforcement agency.

“The department doesn’t have to call it a jail register. If it is a jail register, then it’s a public record,” Edmondson said in a 2005 video for training police about the Open Records Act. “They don’t have to call it a radio log. If they keep a log of radio traffic, then it’s a public record.”

In this situation, Valley Brook created a police report on the incident. Under the Open Records Act, certain information -- the offense, date, time, general location, officer and a brief summary of what occurred -- must be made available to the public.

By denying access to the public information, Valley Brook officials act as though they have something to hide. If that's not the case, then they are doing a disservice to themselves and their own officer.


Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Journalism

Cleveland Co. DA refuses to disclose names of 20 people arrested on drug complaints a week earlier

Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn says he would be endangering the lives of people arrested Dec. 11 on drug complaints if he were to disclose their names to the public, The Norman Transcript reported today.

Mashburn told the newspaper he could not release the names of those arrested because some might not be charged in District Court.

"I will be putting lives in danger," he said.

The article doesn't provide Mashburn's reasoning for that claim.

The Oklahoma Open Records Act, however, explicitly requires law enforcement agencies to disclose the information.

"A. Law enforcement agencies shall make available for public inspection, if kept, the following records:

1. An arrestee description, including the name, date of birth, address, race, sex, physical description, and occupation of the arrestee;

2. Facts concerning the arrest, including the cause of arrest and the name of the arresting officer;

3. A chronological list of all incidents, including initial offense report information showing the offense, date, time, general location, officer, and a brief summary of what occurred;

8. Jail registers, including jail blotter data or jail booking information recorded on persons at the time of incarceration showing the name of each prisoner with the date and cause of commitment, the authority committing the prisoner, whether committed for a criminal offense, a description of the prisoner, and the date or manner of discharge or escape of the prisoner." (Okla. Stat. tit. 51, § 24A.8(A))

The newspaper said 10 people were believed to have been booked into the McClain County Jail and seven into the Cleveland County Detention Center. The whereabouts of the other three was unclear, the newspaper said.

Disclosing the names of people arrested serves to protect them. As several FOI Oklahoma members have noted regarding the story, we don't live in a state in which local authorities may arrest and incarcerate people in secret.

Joey Senat, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

OSU School of Journalism