AG Rules No Violation when Portsmouth PD Denied Record Request on Prospective Tenant

The Portsmouth Police Department did not violate the Access to Public Records Act when it refused to release incident reports to officials at a Newport elderly affordable apartment complex, the Rhode Island Attorney General announced Wednesday.

Lawyers for West Broadway Associates, located at 76 Broadway, had requested all reports and dispatch log entries that involved an unidentified man who reportedly wanted to rent an apartment.

The Portsmouth Police Department declined to release the records because ”disclosure of the records could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” and would deprive the man, referred to as John Doe, of a right to a fair trial or impartial adjudication, wrote Portsmouth Town Solicitor Kevin Gavin in a response to the complaint filed on Aug. 6 with the AG’s office by Meghan Gill, who represented West Broadway Associates.

Both reasons are exceptions to the ARPA laws that allow agencies to deny certain requests and Lt. A.J. Bucci “acted properly in evaluating the request and applying the appropriate balancing test which resulted in his determination that the records sought . .in this case were exempt from public disclosure under APRA,” Gavin wrote.

Gill argued that as a property manager for West Broadway Associates, she had a “duty to [her] current tenants to ensure that all prospective applicants will not create an issue or disturbance.”

In the ruling, Special Assistant Attorney General Malena Lopez Mora wrote that Gill’s request failed to meet the standard by which a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy is weighed against a public’s right to know.

In this case, incident reports of that person -- the prospective tenant -- are not documents that “shed light” on how the government operates, especially since the man was never arrested for a crime.

“The privacy interests therefore outweigh any interest the public may have in disclosure of such a report, particularly given the presumptive nature of an incident report that does not culminate in an arrest,” Mora wrote.

The ruling also made clear that the property manager’s desire for the information to check the background of a prospective tenant doesn’t mesh with the spirit of the APRA law.

“It must be remembered that you seek this information under the APRA and that under the APRA, you do not have any greater interest in gaining access to a record than any member of the public,” Mora wrote.