Fort Florida

Agencies refuse to disclose records

At least 24 of the 78 Florida law enforcement agencies that have been approved for military weapons through federal programs refused to release all or part of their records to the Times.

Among the first to refuse was the Pensacola Police Department, which said antiterror legislation passed in Florida after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks allows it to shield weapons information from the state's public records laws.

Times reporters asked to see inventory records of the military weapons that Pensacola might have, and any records showing the training of officers assigned to those weapons.

Pensacola produced all of the records the newspaper sought for 16 M-14 semiautomatic rifles. The department said they are used "exclusively" by the honor guard on ceremonial occasions. No training records exist because no officers use them to fire live ammunition, according to Pensacola assistant city attorney William D. Wells.

But the police refused to release records of other military surplus weapons. State records show they have two M-16s.

"Please be advised that the information you are seeking is exempt from disclosure . . . as the information constitutes part of the comprehensive inventory of local law enforcement resources," Wells wrote.

Wells and other attorneys who sent similar letters to the Times are relying upon a pair of exemptions to Florida's public records laws.

The first allows police to keep secret "any comprehensive inventory of state and local law enforcement resources."

The second exemption, passed after 9/11, allows agencies to keep a secret "security system plan," with details for how they would protect property from attack.

The newspaper asked a judge to order Pensacola to release the records. But Escambia Circuit Judge Frank Bell denied the request in November, ruling that any information in the possession of police related to security of facilities or threat assessments could remain secret.

Barbara A. Petersen, president of Florida's First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, said the exemptions cited by Pensacola and other agencies were never intended to apply to all records of police weapons and training.

"Nobody is asking for information that will jeopardize the safety of Floridians," Petersen said. "On the contrary, this kind of request goes to the heart of government oversight. . . . We really do need to assure ourselves that government is prepared for an attack. How can we do that if government won't give us access to these records?"

The chairman of the First Amendment Foundation board of trustees is Times editor and president Paul Tash.

The newspaper has filed a notice of appeal to the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee.

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