The city of Akron can continue to conceal the identities of eight police officers involved in a 2022 shooting of a motorist that drew widespread attention and protests, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled recently.
The Supreme Court partially granted a request by the Akron Beacon Journal to force Akron to turn over public records related to the June 2022 shooting death of Jayland Walker. However, the Court ruled the names of eight officers who fired their weapons can be redacted from records provided to the newspaper. The names of other officers involved in the Walker incident and two other police shootings in 2022 must be provided.
In a per curiam opinion, the Court noted that police incident reports and supplemental information gathered by officers are public under the Ohio Public Records Act. However, the law contains an exception for certain confidential law enforcement investigatory records. This exception allows information to be concealed if it creates a high probability of disclosing “the identity of a suspect who has not been charged with the offense to which the record pertains.”…