State government offices prohibit photos of records
Some Tennessee lawmakers and open records advocates argue it is a citizen’s right to take cellphone photographs of public records, with some restrictions. But a Tennessee Office of Open Records Counsel model policy has stirred a statewide dispute over what rights are guaranteed in Tennessee open records law.
In January, the counsel, an advisory body in the state comptroller’s office, issued model language for how government agencies could regulate public records requests.
The counsel wrote: “A requestor will [not] be allowed to make copies of records with personal equipment,” leaving discretion up to the custodians of public documents.
The language was issued after a new state law required government offices to establish a written public records policy by July 1, 2017.
But Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, which opposed the model language, said the wording goes against both the letter and spirit of the law.
“The language says that the government entity has discretion on whether to allow someone to use a personal device to take a photo copy [of] the public records,” she said.
“But we don’t think that’s a correct reading of the law and they adopted it anyway.”
Fisher cites a section of Tennessee law that says anyone inspecting records, “shall have the right to take extracts or make copies thereof, and to make photographs” provided the custodian of the records has the right to make reasonable rules governing the process.
The open government advocate said she understands situations in which a government records custodian would want to restrict photos, such as cases in which documents contain private information that has not been redacted or where
sensitive documents could be harmed by flash photography.
But Fisher said since the counsel wrote the model language, government entities across the state flatly have prohibited cellphone photography in their own policies.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and the Tennessee Department of Transportation are two government agencies that recently denied allowing photos of documents.
TWRA used the counsel’s model language verbatim and TDOT prohibited requestor photographs while allowing handwritten notes.
Like Fisher, state Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said such restrictions put an undue burden on requestors when technology makes copying records easier.
Bell told The Tennessean he’s heard of at least two cases where citizens were denied the freedom to take photos of public documents at local government offices in which the counsel’s model language was cited.
During a Sept. 20 meeting of the legislative Joint Government Operations Committee, Bell, the senate committee chairman, asked the two departments to review their policies. Representatives from both agencies agreed.
But Bell also put out a petition to the Office of Open Records Counsel to draft new language that would allow photographs of public records.
In a response letter to Bell two days later, state Comptroller Justin Wilson said the counsel believed the language was appropriate under state law and the Tennessee Public Records Act gives government entities discretion over whether requestors may use personal equipment.
But Bell said he could sponsor a bill during the next session to address the dispute.
“I think people should be able to use what’s most convenient to them in order to make copies of public records,” he said. “I’m somewhat surprised by government. I’ve had a little push back from local government since that meeting and we may have to drag local government along. They may not come willingly.”
Contact Jordan Buie at 615-726-5970 or by email at jbuie@tennessean. com. Follow him on Twitter @jordanbuie.
“I think people should be able to use what’s most convenient to them in order to make copies of public records.” — STATE SEN. MIKE BELL, R-RICEVILLE