EDITORIAL: Access to public records is a must

Last week, The Volante sent four reporters to Pierre for annual Newspaper Day. One element of their trip they brought back to the newsroom was conversation about the failure of an open government measure that would have boosted access to public records last year.

House Bill 1113 would have required public boards to treat electronic exchanges of official business as public records, but the bill fell short of passage Jan. 28, 2013 by one vote.

The more discussion that arose from why some lawmakers thought the measure was an overreach brought about a clear consensus between members of Volante staff; access to public records should not be a privilege, it should be expected.

There have been a number of stories in the past year pursued by The Volante that have yielded headaches brought on by denials of open records requests from a number of organizations and institutions. In the end, all these denials are allowing for is an uninformed public.

This was the case last year when a reported sexual assault was being investigated at Coyote Village. After requesting a copy of the initial incident report — which is by no means an unreasonable request for such an incident — the Vermillion Police Department denied a full access to the record by means of a broad exception in a South Dakota statute.  The cited reason included barring the inspection of “records developed or received by law enforcement agencies and other public bodies charged with duties of investigation…if the records constitute a part of the examination, investigation.”

A similar denial occurred just last week when Volante reporters requested access to the names of those who received underage drinking citations at a Vermillion house bust, and were told by the VPD and Clay County State’s Attorney Teddi Gertsma that the names would not be released by them because it was an “ongoing criminal investigation.” Yet, within 24 hours, the names were obtained through the Clerk of Courts, so why deny access to names that were already filed in the court system?

It is this kind of obstruction that should make people want to see changes made to state law regarding access to public records. Every citizen, not just journalists, should be able to access emails board members are exchanging to conduct business that could potentially affect them, or an initial incident report from a reported sexual assault in their neighborhood.

This is not a matter of making intrusion the norm; this is a matter of making government information open and easily accessible.

Correction: In an earlier version of this editorial, the date of HB 1113 was misidentified. The bill was brought up in last year’s legislative session.