Saturday, August 13, 2005

 

In Ohio the police just got a little more secret

While the decision of the Ohio Supreme Court to reject the Cleveland Plain-Dealer's request for the photos of 8 police officers only applies to the State of Ohio, the victory for secrecy was celebrated by the head of the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) as an enhancement of police privacy rights—
"The F.O.P. is committed to enhancing the safety of every single law enforcement officer in the nation," Canterbury said, "and the decision in this case is a major victory in our continuing efforts to do so: upholding the right to privacy for our police officers, and recognizing the inherent danger to these brave men and women by wantonly and unnecessarily making their personal information publicly available."

At issue was an interpretation of the Ohio Public Records Act, which according to the FOP press release, exempts from public disclosure "peace officer, firefighter, or EMT residential and familial information." The Court decided that photos were "familial information."

As the privacy rights of the public continue to shrink, the privacy rights of legislators, bureaucrats and enforcers continue to grow.

While they were at it the FOP also announced "the strong support of the Fraternal Order of Police for the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to be the next associate justice of the Supreme Court."
 

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