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By Richard D. Walton and Brendan O'Shaughnessy

Government officials routinely broke or skirted Indiana's open records law during a statewide test by eight newspapers.

Journalists presenting themselves as citizens visited government offices in all 92 counties to see how readily officials turned over documents that are supposed to be available to anyone.

While some journalists easily obtained the records, others were intimidated, questioned repeatedly, put off for days, or wrongly told they needed a court order or subpoena. One county worker said it would take "an act of God" for him to turn over the public document.

The denial of records demonstrates the uphill fight citizens face in obtaining even the most basic government information paid for with their tax dollars.

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Seven years after the newspapers conducted their first audit, the new review shows some improvement. But many public servants still don't understand the decades-old law that entitles everyone equal access to records.

Reporters and copy editors fanned out across the state in August to obtain crime logs and reports, a list of public employee salaries and court files of sex offenders ­ 368 public records in all. Just 11 counties granted all four documents within 24 hours.

Sheriffs were the least likely to comply, providing 60 percent of requested logs and 43 percent of incident reports, despite undergoing training on how to be more accessible to the public just two weeks before the unannounced audit. The remaining documents were illegally denied or otherwise not provided for a variety of reasons.

In one county, sheriff's department staff watched the reporter leave town, checked his license plate in an effort to identify him, then called his employer to question his motives.

In contrast, county court clerks handed over the court files of sex offenders in

all but five of the 92 counties, the best response rate of the government offices surveyed.

County auditors had a mixed response, granting requests for public employee salaries in 66 percent of the counties but rarely providing the record on a computer disk, as requested.

Some officials and staff incorrectly stated the documents weren't public records. A few advised the visitors to wait for the information to be published in the newspaper. In still other cases, officials produced incomplete information or data that is undecipherable to an average citizen.

"The public shouldn't have to jump through multiple hoops to get information," said Julia Vaughn, policy director of Common Cause Indiana, a public watchdog group that advocates for open government.

Yet in county after county, the journalists met resistance or other problems in getting public records:

­ In Wayne County, an employee in the auditor's office asked whether the person requesting salary records was a Democrat or a Republican.

­ In Monroe County, a sheriff's employee told a reporter that no crime log is kept and that computer software upgrades were needed to produce crime reports.

­ In Rush County, Sheriff Jim Owens threatened the reporter requesting the information, saying he would jail him if he continued to "intimidate my staff."

Advocates for open government say such abuses demonstrate the need for reform. They urge better training of government office staff, clearer and stronger access laws and making information available in more public-friendly computer systems.

By Richard D. Walton, The Indianapolis Star
and
Brendan O'Shaughnessy, The Times of Northwest Indiana

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