Lakeland Police Internal Affairs Files: A Matter of Public Record

An article appeared in this morning's edition of The Ledger that featured "news" of a police officer who resigned back in December 2007 during an internal affairs investigation. While the facts of the story are nearly four months old, I felt it was important to let people understand how internal affairs files are a matter of public record.

Every couple of months we get a public records request from The Ledger asking to read our closed internal affairs reports. Under Florida's broad public records law, these reports are deemed to be a public record and available for inspection by anyone who asks to read them. There are a few exceptions to some of the information contained therein, but for the most part anyone can read a file at anytime. Active internal affairs investigations are not open to public inspection; they must be closed to become a public record.

The Florida Police Officers Bill of Rights found in F/S 112.531-535 in the relevant law here.

While it is not our practice to distribute media releases when an officer resigns under these types of circumstances, we remain transparent and open to anyone who seeks such information. In other words, we are not hiding anything here. The four month delay in publishing this story is not the result of the police department stashing away this information only to be suddenly "uncovered" by a reporter. Rather, the delay is due to when local reporters make their requests for public records, the parameters of such requests, and when editors decide to run the story.

We remain committed to a fair and objective internal affairs process that seeks to investigate all citizen complaints of officer misconduct. Our investigative reports stand on their own merit, and we will render findings based on the facts, witness testimony, and physical evidence. These reports remain available for public inspection by anyone under Florida law.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere