RI ACLU Files Complaint Against Narragansett Police Dept. for Hiding Records of Misconduct

RI ACLU Files Complaint Against Narragansett Police Dept. for Hiding Records of Misconduct

The Rhode Island ACLU filed a complaint against the Narragansett Police Department for refusing to release copies of its investigation into complaints of police misconduct.

“The Town of Narragansett’s response to the APRA request, in this case, ignores Rhode Island law and is a flagrant breach of both the letter and spirit of the APRA. Unfortunately, this is all too common in our state.  Hopefully, the Attorney General can help restore the APRA and reinforce the idea that disclosure of public records should be the norm, not the exception,” said ACLU cooperating attorney James Cullen.

Read the Complaint HERE

The complaint was filed on behalf of Dimitri Lyssikatos, a member of the Rhode Island Accountability Project.

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The Complaint

According to the ACLU, in response to an open records request filed by Lyssikatos last September, the police department claimed that all the internal affairs reports were confidential, despite Rhode Island Supreme Court decisions dating back more than 30 years that have held to the contrary.

The ACLU complaint also takes aim at a 2017 APRA advisory opinion by the Attorney General’s office, Piskunov v. Town of Narragansett, which made a distinction between citizen-generated and internally-initiated complaints of misconduct.

According to the ACLU, because the earlier R.I. Supreme Court rulings in favor of public access happened to involve requests for reports involving citizen-generated complaints of misconduct, the Piskunov opinion seized upon that fact to hold that the Narragansett Police Department could withhold their final reports of misconduct investigations if they were initiated internally. 

The complaint filed with the Attorney General states:

The Town of Narragansett Police Department’s position that the internal affairs reports requested by Mr. Lyssikatos are not public documents is unsupported by any statutory or legal authority. Rhode Island law is clear that internal affairs reports—whatever their source—are public records and must be disclosed pursuant to an appropriate request, although personally identifiable information may be redacted from them.

Specifically addressing the distinction between citizen- and internally-generated complaints, the ACLU letter further argues:

“The Piskunov opinion has cast a pall over police department accountability and transparency and is being used to hinder the public’s right to know in significant ways. We request that your office take this opportunity to reconsider and reverse that pronouncement, and conclude that the text and intent of the APRA . . . compel the conclusion that internally-generated reports regarding alleged police misconduct, no less than citizen-generated reports, are public records.”

Other Cases 

Besides Narragansett, the ACLU is presently in court challenging the only other known police department – Pawtucket – that relies on Piskunov to keep these records of misconduct secret.

According to the ACLU, Pawtucket has made public its citizen-generated complaint reports, which the ACLU says Narragansett refused to do.