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Editorial: Transparency over privacy in E-911 case

August 08, 2012|Journal staff report | news@jessaminejournal.com

If one thing was clear from the attorney general’s recent opinion that Jessamine E-911 violated open-records law, it was that transparency of government outweighs privacy concerns for anonymous callers.

After EMS employee Amanda Wood’s request for tapes of 911 calls from a February traffic accident, some of the records were denied. A letter from E-911 director Shelby Horn claimed some recordings were withheld because they contained personal information that would “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

The accident involved four vehicles including an ambulance in which Wood was working, and the incident only received more attention when Wood’s then-fiancé and now husband Andrew Wood claimed a delay in medical response for Amanda was a purposeful retaliation by EMS chief Jerry Domidion for Andrew’s support of a sexual-harassment claim against Domidion.

The withheld calls contained no information relating to that drama, according to the attorney general’s office; they were only exchanges between 911 callers and dispatchers.

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While there may have been no juicy details or incriminating conversations in the withheld recordings, the attorney general made a clear point in ruling against E-911 — that the need for having public record be complete and unedited was greater than privacy issues of callers who aren’t required to identify themselves.

“Significant interest of the public in monitoring the actions of the 911 operators discharging their public function outweighs the minimal privacy interests of the unidentified callers in this context,” the opinion states.

If agencies can cite privacy of 911 callers as a reason to withhold records, we shutter to think what the ramifications would be — perhaps law-enforcement arrest citations will also be off limits or information be needlessly redacted.

E-911 — whether it be in Jessamine County or Kalamazoo — is a governmental agency, and it too should be held accountable, and the open records laws are in place to make sure that happens.

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