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c/thepoliceproblem · by DougHolland@lemmy.world · 2y

Kansas town where cops raided newspaper now refuses to turn over public records

https://web.archive.org/web/20231103232121/https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/investigations/city-of-marion-refuses-to-turn-over-records-following-newsroom-raid-that-should-be-publicly-available

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148 points · 4 comments · view on lemmy.world

4 Comments

roguetrick@kbin.social · 6 pts · 2y (3 replies)

I can understand the city attorney's position on private cell phones not being public records for city councilmen. The government doesn't actually have those devices, I'd imagine it'd need a court order to get the data itself. It really needs to go to court first to figure out how it plays with kansas law. This is one of the less objectionable issues at play, and frankly those records will be brought forth in the civil case during discovery.

bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 2y (2 replies)

The article states the Kansas Law which is pretty clear:

The law states:

"Public record" means any recorded informations, regardless of form, characteristics or locations, that is made, maintained or kept by or is in possession of

(A) Any public agency; or

(B) any officer or employee of a public agency pursuant to the officer's or employee's official duties and that is related to the functions, activities, programs or operations of any public agency.

roguetrick@kbin.social · 0 pts · 2y (1 reply)

That's fine, but it doesn't mean the courts belive it empowers an agency to look through it's members private communications for the possibility of relation to official duties. I'd be curious what they have to say on the subject.

TheWiseAlaundo@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 2y

Cody's resignation letter was provided to the I-Team by the newspaper's attorney. The email was sent from Cody's private email account to Marion Mayor David Mayfield's private email.

I don't think the article really brought enough attention to the above sentence. There is already a business record showing that public duties are being performed using personal emails.