Patrol withholds reports on use of force
The State Highway Patrol reports that its troopers used force against pipeline-construction protesters while deployed to assist North Dakota authorities last year.
But the public is not entitled to learn the frequency or type of force that the troopers used in clashes with protesters, the patrol says in response to a Dispatch request for patrol records.
Citing security concerns and trooper safety, the patrol refuses to release use-offorce reports involving the 37 troopers dispatched to North Dakota from Oct. 30 to Nov. 15. Whether the force involved pepper spray (a video showed an Ohio trooper dousing protesters with the irritant), rubber bullets or baton strikes — and how it was justified — will not be made public, the patrol says.
The denial comes even as the Ohio Collaborative Police-Community Advisory Board has stressed that transparency by lawenforcement agencies, including in their use of force, is vital to fostering accountability and trust with the public.
Public Safety Director John Born, a former patrol superintendent, serves as co-chairman of the task force. The group was appointed by Gov. John Kasich to set Ohio’s first standards for the use of force and deadly force and to recommend ways to improve relations between police and the communities they serve.
The patrol did release a record showing that a review by superiors found that the troopers’ use of force on the protesters was appropriate and within patrol policy.
The patrol says the other records are exempt from release as “security” records because their release could endanger the troopers’ safety amid threats made against law enforcement during the Dakota Access crude-oil pipeline demonstrations near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The troopers also have a 14th Amendment right to privacy and personal security, a patrol attorney argued.
Even after The Dispatch amended its public-records request this week to authorize the withholding of troopers’ names, the
Please know that we are focused on balancing our commitment to transparency and Ohio public-records law with the duty to protect people and related records.”
—Kristen Castle, public-safety spokeman
Department of Public Safety still refused to release records detailing the use of force — or “response to resistance” in patrol jargon.
“Please know that we are focused on balancing our commitment to transparency and Ohio public-records law with the duty to protect people and related records,” said publicsafety spokeswoman Kristen Castle. “The North Dakota deployment was a unique situation,” and the refusal to release records does not mean that other use-of-force reports involving troopers will not be released, she said.
Public-records requests by The Dispatch and the Cincinnati Enquirer seeking information about the role that Ohio troopers played during encounters with North Dakota protesters have produced few details. The Enquirer has filed a complaint in the Ohio Court of Claims alleging that the patrol has illegally withheld records. Unlike The Dispatch, the Enquirer apparently did not seek use-of-force reports.
In an affidavit in the Enquirer case, Lt. Col. Kevin Teaford wrote of general threats against officers stemming from the North Dakota protests, but he did not cite specific threats against Ohio troopers during the mutual-assistance mission.
“There are dangers in disclosing the records in question, as the information ... could fall into the hands of violent Dakota Access Pipeline protest groups who want to cause harm to law-enforcement officers,” Teaford wrote.
Columbus lawyer Fred Gittes, a public-records expert with experience in police matters, criticized the patrol’s refusal to release records.
“They are thumbing their noses at the Ohio Supreme Court, which has repeatedly made it clear that use-offorce reports are public records. We can never learn what they did? We are now openly espousing having secret police.”