Senate Bill No. 85
In Other Words…
Each year, a numerous amount of bills is proposed in the legislative session. And each year, these bills are hard to comprehend. Here’s hoping this clears some confusion and gives an update of a few bills a work keeping up with:
Senate Bill No. 85
Public records will be available to anyone who requests them. This would include information on police calls made, such as date, time, general location and subject matter.
If a report is linked to an ongoing investigation or contains identity information, it would not be released. Criminal records will remain confidential, as they do not offer the name or address of the person.
Invasion of privacy has been discussed, if it would be ethical to distribute the information to the public. Allowing this would still be at the discretion of the county custodian after discussing it with the governor.
On Jan. 29, we sat down with Governor Daugaard’s Chief of Staff Dusty Johnson. Johnson said there is a need to focus on what is in the public’s interest.
There are three points to look at, when observing the bill, he pointed out. Either the…
- Government has to give out the records.
- It is prohibited to give out records because of public interest.
or
- The lawful custodian could give them out, but is not obligated to.
Johnson said they would make an active attempt to offer to the public what the papers they need.
