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Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year]
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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato (429-347 BC)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Arkansas Candidates & Elected Officials Get to Keep Their Criminal Records Secret

Bill Smith, ARRA News Service: That's right folks! In Arkansas, candidates for office and elected officials get to keep their records secret unless a citizen is willing to drive to 75 counties and visit huge numbers of courthouses and police stations to try to get criminal record information. Rep. Dan Greenberg noted the need to improve government transparency and introduced a bill that would make access the criminal records of candidates and elected officials easier to access by the public. Guess who objected most? It was Attorney General Dustin McDaniel who argued against the bill saying that we should "protect the privacy" of criminals' public records. Duh! If a person runs for public office and they have been a criminal, don't the voters have the right to know that the person has a criminal record?

Let's view the full story from Rep Dan Greenberg who introduced the bill:

  • This week made me ask: why is our attorney general trying to hide public information?

  • When I first filed a bill that would make the criminal records of government officials public — at the suggestion of a professor at our local law school — I figured most people would think it's a good idea. Maybe so, but it turned out that most state legislators thought differently.


  • HB 1051 would have made the criminal records of candidates, elected officials and high-ranking appointed officials accessible on demand. The argument for this is simple: public access to the criminal histories of government decision-makers is absolutely in the public interest, and the public has a right to know about the criminal past of those who are supposed to act in the interest of the public.

    State government already compiles all Arkansans' criminal history from public records. The information in Arkansas law enforcement databases is already public information, already collected by state government employees, and is already paid for by taxpayers. It's exactly the kind of information that is supposed to be open to the public under our freedom of information laws.

    The only bar to getting it is that the everyday citizen has to drive to 75 counties and visit huge numbers of courthouses and police stations in order to get criminal record information. It's unreasonable to make citizens go to this length when state government already has a complete database of easily accessible public information.

    We discussed this bill several times in the House Judiciary Committee. At our first committee meeting, legislators raised questions about how the bill would work and who would administer the background checks. In response to these concerns, I repeatedly met with and talked to professional law enforcement staff from the State Police and the Arkansas Crime Information Center, who suggested numerous modifications to the bill to make it work better. I accepted all but one of their suggestions — I didn't take their advice on how to set prices for the background check.

    One day after our last conversation, I took the bill before the Judiciary Committee again, only to be met with hostile testimony from the same law enforcement professionals who advised me before. The same law enforcement professionals who had advised me didn't like my proposed fee.

    Attorney General Dustin McDaniel also spoke against the bill; he said he thought the bill was too extensive — that letting the public do background checks on every "state legislator, Justice of the Peace and dogcatcher in Arkansas" granted too much access by too many people. We don't actually have elections for dogcatcher in Arkansas, but it was interesting to see him say publicly what I suspect some elected officials thought privately.

    I once again modified the bill: the newest draft increased the price for background checks, ensured that sealed and expunged records would not be revealed, and made a variety of technical changes to satisfy other members.

    I then took it back for a third round of questioning before the Judiciary Committee, where the real motivation for the hostility towards the bill by some members was growing more evident. One of my favorite colleagues, freshman Rep. Ann Clemmer, spoke in favor of the bill at the hearing, noting that "with this much scrutiny over the bill, I'm worried that the public is going to think that we have something to hide."

    One of the attorney general's lawyers showed up and criticized the bill, saying that it would reveal confidential information, but admitted under questioning that every bit of information covered by the bill was already public information.

    The bill finally made it out of committee but didn't fare so well on the floor. Attorney General McDaniel sent a letter to all legislators arguing that we should "protect the privacy" of criminals' public records. That didn't make much sense to me, but apparently it was more persuasive to others. On Friday, government secrecy won and freedom of information lost; the bill failed 33-56.
    Thank you Dan Greenberg and those who voted for this bill. Transparency in government is needed even if the Attorney General would rather protect some of his colleagues. Gee - wonder who these people are? Below is review of the votes; Note while almost all Republicans supported greater transparency in government, it was Democrats who stopped this bill.
    Yeas: 33 (25 Republican; 8 Democrats)
    AdcockD. CreekmoreGlidewellJ. RogersM. MartinRice
    B. WilkinsD. HutchinsonGreenbergKerrNickelsS. Malone
    BairdDaleHobbsKingPyleSlinkard
    CarnineDismangHopperL. SmithR. GreenSummers
    CarterEnglishHoytLeaRaglandWoods
    ClemmerGarnerJ. Burris
    Nays: 56 (54 Democrats; 1 Republican & 1 Green Party)
    AllenDavenportHouseLovellPennartzT. Baker
    BarnettDavisHydeLoweryPerryT. Bradford
    BettsDunnIngramMalochPierceT. Rogers
    BlountEverettJ. BrownMaxwellPowersTyler
    BreedloveFlowersJ. DickinsonMcLeanRaineyW. Lewellen
    CarrollGaskillJ. EdwardsMooreReepWagner
    CashGeorgeKiddNixSaundersWebb
    ColeHallL. CowlingOverbeyShelbyWells
    CookHarrelsonLindseyPattersonStewartWord
    CooperHawkins
    Not Voting: 11 (10 Democrats & 1 Republican)
    AbernathyG. SmithJ. RoebuckMcCraryReynoldsWilliams
    CheathamHardyM. BurrisMr.SpeakerSample

    Tags: Arkansas, criminal records, Dan Greenberg, elected officials, freedom of information, government transparency To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
    Posted by Bill Smith at 12:00 PM - Post Link

    6 Comments:

    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    It is a shame that our elected members of government are afraid to reveal their criminal records. Makes me want to vote them out!!!
    What are you hiding???
    This is a problem in our government. Show it all.

    2/18/2009  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I'm confused. Are all criminal files private now? Or just ones for candidates?

    2/20/2009  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    If I'm reading this correctly, the records are currently decentralized, as are all court and arrest records, in the local
    districts. REp. Greenburg introduced a bill to centralize access, but AG McDaniel objected, in effect endorsing the status quo.

    Conor
    ______
    Conor Kenny
    Senior Editor, OpenCongress.org & Congresspedia.org
    Sunlight Foundation

    2/20/2009  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Convicted felons should not have a right to privacy (assuming, arguendo, that such a thing ever existed in the Constitution for anyone, but that's another point). I understand privacy to the point of preventing government
    disclosure of information on individuals where the individual is innocent (until proven guilty - which is when the record should be released) and the collection not voluntary (ie. - there's a difference between a letter a
    citizen sends to his city council and data the city council collects on its citizens). Also, doesn't the Constitution address the AG's argument - all trials are supposed to be public!!! If a trial is public, then records of it should be too. There's a US onstitutional answer to this problem - ONCE CONVICTED - that is "criminal records" - the record should be public (even if not convicted, the record of not-guilty should generally be public as well).

    In Michigan, most law enforcement records are open, but the FOIA exemptions prevent disclosure when it "interferes with ongoing investigation" (wait till case is closed), jeopardizes a law enforcement officer's life or
    safety, or "clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy" occurs (not the criminals', but informants or bystander witnesses).

    Not only voters have a right to know who's a criminal - neighbors do. Look at all the sex-offender registry laws running through the country.

    How about a politicians crime registry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    --------------
    Chetly Zarko, Zarko Research & Consulting
    Original news & publishing, full service political consulting and business
    marketing. www.chetlyzarko.com

    2/20/2009  
    Blogger Bill Smith said...

    Chet: Your final commet about the "The Politicians Crime registry" is an interesting jab at the system :)

    Conner: You are correct.

    As identified in the post, the records are available with significant difficulty in each of 75 counties / cities and visit huge numbers of courthouses and police stations.

    In Arkansas, one does not just walk into the "controlling" party's Sheriff office, Court Clerks office, or County Clerks office and get a lot of help trying to run down an elected or candidates criminal record of someone from their county or related to someone from their
    county especially if in the same party. We are not talking months of delays but maybe years.

    People trying to gather the information "may" even wind up collecting a few Misdemeanor charges along the way.

    2/20/2009  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Sounds like we need a wiki project. I could help set it up if you know someone who could take the lead in organizing it.

    At Sunlight we've often found that we should just go ahead and build
    our own information source if the gov won't.

    Conor
    ___________
    Conor Kenny
    Senior Editor, www.OpenCongress.org
    Sunlight Foundation

    2/20/2009  

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