You might recall that we were waiting to hear from the county for its next move on 911 time response logs (see previous blog entry).
Well, county solicitor Michael Flannelly said today the county will be appealing the open records’ office decision on our appeal.
The background: Police reporter Ted Czech requested 911 time response
logs under the Right-to-Know law, and the county only gave him a set of
times: Time the call comes, time units are dispatched, time they arrive
on scene, etc. The county denied his request to get addresses, or at
least a street name and cross-street, with the response logs. Czech
appealed the denial, and the open records office ruled that the county
must provide the street names.
What happens now is the county
appeals the open records office’s decision to the York County Court of
Common Pleas. Flannelly said a county judge will review the previous
decision.
In appealing to court, the county is maintaining that releasing street names could compromise victims’ privacy.
The
argument Czech has made is that, without any street names, the records
themselves are essentially useless. The public would be unable to
assess the performance of first responders without the information.