City of Fort Thomas v. Cincinnati Inquirer
Annotate this CaseThe City of Fort Thomas, through its police department, denied a request by the Cincinnati Enquirer to inspect and copy the entire police file generated during a homicide investigation. In denying the request, the City relied on the law-enforcement exemption to the Kentucky Open Records Act (Act). The circuit court upheld the City's denial of the Enquirer's request. The court of appeals reversed, thereby rejecting the City's claim of a blanket exemption for its investigatory file, and remanded with instructions that the file be parsed into exempt and non-exempt portions of the investigatory file, with the non-exempt portions to be released to the newspaper. The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part, holding (1) the court of appeals correctly determined that the law enforcement exemption does not create a blanket exclusion from the Act's disclosure provisions for all law enforcement records pertinent to a prospective law enforcement action; and (2) to invoke the exemption, the City must show the disclosure of such records would harm or interfere with a prospective enforcement action in some significant and concrete way. Remanded.
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