At its next meeting on December 13, the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) will consider a complaint touching on identity verification of individuals filing Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and exemptions to the law designed to protect requests that include sensitive personal information.
According to a report on the complaint prepared by FOIC hearing officer Kevin Munn, on December 8, 2022, complainant Robert Meehan requested that public agencies in Stamford, including the city’s police department, provide him with a copy of a November 4, 2022 police report involving his 11-year-old daughter, who was in her mother’s custody.
The same day, the respondents asked Meehan to provide identification before they moved forward with the request. Meehan objected and Stamford denied the request and notified him they would follow up with the state’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) to see whether the records should be withheld.
The exemption the respondents wanted to examine further allows records to be withheld if there are “reasonable grounds to believe disclosure may result in a safety risk, including the risk of harm to any person.” The exemption gives the commissioner of DESPP authority to make a determination about what constitutes reasonable grounds.
On January 5, 2023, the day after receiving the refusal, Meehan filed a complaint with the FOIC.
Munn’s report of a hearing held about the complaint notes that the FOIC and Connecticut’s superior court have interpreted the state’s FOIA law to “prohibit public agencies from adopting policies that require requesters to provide identification or otherwise impose conditions on the right to access public records beyond what is provided for in the FOI Act.”
The report also notes that Meehan testified during the hearing that this was not the first request Stamford has denied because of his refusal to provide identification. However, because that issue was not mentioned in the initial complaint, it is not a factor in the case.
Munn found that while Stamford initially requested Meehan provide identification, that was not the ultimate reason his complaint was rejected. The reason, according to Munn, the request was denied was because the DESPP commissioner determined there was reasonable grounds to believe disclosure posed a safety risk.
DESPP submitted unredacted copies of the records to the FOIC for review. According to Munn, the records provided contained the name, address, and other personally identifying information of Meehan’s daughter’s mother. DESPP also testified that disclosing that information could result in a threat to the mother, who is protected by a family violence protected order, which they testified has previously been violated.
As a result, Munn concluded that Stamford did not violate the FOIC by refusing to turn over unredacted records. His report recommended the complaint be dismissed.
The FOIC will vote on whether to accept the report at its December 13 meeting.
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