A bill that would limit the public's access to county coroners' reports failed to gain the endorsement of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Task Force on Monday.
Proponents of Senate Bill 567 by Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers -- the Association of Arkansas Counties and the Arkansas Coroners' Association -- said the proposed limitations stem from concerns about families' privacy and removing guesswork for coroners, while task force members and open-records advocates said it goes too far in expanding the information that can be exempted from being released.
The legislation comes amid the publication of two projects from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that relied on coroners' records obtained by the newspaper, one on the causes of child deaths in Arkansas and another detailing the life stories of Arkansans who died from covid-19.
SB567 would allow coroners to redact information and materials "including without limitation" certain details about the decedent and their next of kin, preliminary autopsy notes or findings and investigative notes made by the coroner or by anyone acting under the coroner's direction or supervision in responding to an open records request.
"What we've constructed for the coroners is a road map, and this road map lays out what the coroner's supposed to release," Mark Whitmore, legal counsel for the Association of Arkansas Counties, told the task force.
Task force members said the way the bill is written is the opposite way that exemptions are written in the state open records law. Rusty Turner, president of the board of directors of the Arkansas Press Association and editor of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Alec Gaines, attorney for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, spoke against the bill.
"That information is so important to what our reporters are doing, and we wouldn't be able to tell our stories with that information redacted," Gaines said.
A motion to oppose the bill passed in a split voice vote. The task force is a recommending body, so its decisions on bills don't stop them from moving through the Legislature.
Bledsoe initially presented the bill to a Senate committee last week but pulled it down to amend it after skepticism from senators.
The task force also discussed and failed to endorse, for the second time, Senate Bill 346, which was passed by the Senate hours later on Monday.
The bill allows local law enforcement agencies to charge up to $15 an hour for retrieving and preparing audiovisual records for open records requests that require more than three hours of personnel or equipment time to fulfill.
A motion to endorse the bill by task force member Will Gruber, civil attorney for Saline County, died for lack of a second. Because the task force first considered a draft version of the bill, the legislation was amended to add a provision capping the rate at $15 per hour.
The Senate voted 27-7 to approve the legislation, sending it to the House.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, told senators that the bill is backed by the Association of Arkansas Counties and the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association.
"The bottom line is that people in our law enforcement agencies are already strapped for cash trying to have funding to be able to keep an officer on the street," Rapert said.
He said there have been some people making public information requests that are overly burdensome and law enforcement agencies have had to use a deputy or officer to go through hours of videotape to respond to requests.
"What they are trying to do here is to put what they hope will be some good parameters around this," Rapert said. "They are just trying to come up with some way to reasonably handle this kind of request without burdening their forces."
Task force members, as well as community organizers with the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition, expressed concerns that the legislation could make public records requests expensive and unaffordable for the average Arkansan.
"It doesn't do you any good to encourage the use of cameras if the public can't have any access to it," task force member and law professor Rob Steinbuch said. "Most Arkansans can't afford to pay hours upon hours at that rate or another rate. The $15 is not a cheap rate if you're paying upon hours upon hours of work."
The Arkansas Press Association is neutral on SB346 as amended.
Information for this article was contributed by Neal Earley of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.