Police group pledges better FOI education

PORTLAND – A group representing the state’s top law enforcement officials pledged to work to educate its members about open-record laws after a survey by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition.

More than a third of police departments refused to allow access to their incident reports, or police logs, during the Nov. 19 survey.

Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, was troubled by the findings and extended an invitation to the coalition to participate in future training sessions.

“It was evident from the report that some departments need to adopt policies on this issue and training needs to be enhanced,” Schwartz, former police chief in South Portland, said in a statement.

The coalition welcomed the opportunity to improve police compliance with the Maine Freedom of Access Act.

“One of our chief missions is education. So this is what we hoped would happen,” said Judith Meyer, chairwoman of the coalition’s audit committee and editorial page editor of the Sun Journal in Lewiston.

The survey marked the first statewide attempt to see whether anyone can walk into a town office, school district office or police department and review a public record, as stipulated in the Maine Freedom of Access Act.

The survey was organized by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition. Participants included The Associated Press, Maine Press Association, Maine Association of Broadcasters and other groups.

More than 100 volunteer participants fanned out across all 16 counties, visiting 74 police departments, 157 municipal offices and 79 school districts. Letters also were mailed to nearly 500 municipalities.

Police departments fared worse when it came to granting the auditors access to their latest daily incident reports.

In addition to outright refusals, many police departments required auditors to identify themselves or their organizations. State law does not require people to identify themselves to see public records.

In Madawaska, the police chief told the Bangor Daily News that he ran a computer check on the license plate number of the vehicle of an auditor who was denied his request to see the police log.

The auditor noted that someone from the police department later called his office at the St. John Valley Times to verify his employment, even though he had not told police where he worked.

While Schwartz said individual police departments don’t agree with the accuracy of some of the auditors’ comments, he said the exercise showed that police departments have some work to do.

The Maine Chiefs of Police Association conducted media training for police executives in 1999. But Schwartz said it’s evident that departments need more training from top to bottom.

“More training has to be conducted at all levels, including dispatchers, office staff and officers so everyone is familiar with Maine’s law and able to deal with requests,” Schwartz said.