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Virginia’s feckless Freedom of Information Act – so riddled with exemptions and other shortcomings that transparency experts say it’s subpar compared to other states – has suffered another loss. Recently, a Chesterfield County judge sided with that locality’s police department in refusing a citizen’s request to reveal the names and salaries of hundreds of its officers.
The ruling occurred despite a section in the Code of Virginia providing access to records “of the name, position, job classification, official salary, or rate of pay” of public employees. Andrew Bodoh, the attorney who sought the release of information for his client, told me this part of state law should’ve resolved potential conflicts with other code portions involving FOIA.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported the Chesterfield police department had redacted the names of nearly every officer on the force. The agency had said that all 521 officers below the rank of lieutenant could go “undercover” at any time in his or her career, which is why the names should remain secret.
More on that novel reasoning later.
Bodoh, who specializes in FOIA cases, said the case will be appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeals. A similar case from Hanover County Circuit Court, involving access to information on sheriff’s department deputies there, will be heard at the appellate court.
FOIA Friday: Nottoway’s new county administrator, Hanover officer info stays shielded
Bodoh said there’s an obvious public interest in obtaining the names of people who are stopping citizens and making arrests. Residents should also know how much officers are being paid and whether those amounts are “fiscally responsible, as well,” he added.
Of course we should. Bringing that information to light could curb nepotism and favoritism within local government, too.
Chesterfield County Attorney Jeffrey Mincks, who defended the police department in court, did not return my calls or emails requesting comment about the case.
Bodoh represents Richmond resident Alice Minium, the founder and director of OpenOversightVA.org. The website bills itself as “a public, searchable database of law-enforcement officers” in the commonwealth.
Minium started her information-gathering following the racial justice protests that occurred when Minneapolis police killed George Floyd in 2020. During demonstrations in Richmond, Minium told me, police officers often wouldn’t identify themselves to protesters.
“We are trying to get from their mouths who is on their payroll and who is policing us,” she said.
Some 342 law-enforcement agencies around Virginia have provided information that her organization had sought.
Only Hanover and Chesterfield refused her requests. Hanover had utilized the same general defense about secrecy for undercover cops that Chesterfield later adopted. “The entire rest of the state acts like this is a given,” Minium noted.
It makes you ask: What good is FOIA if you can’t get such basic information? If the appellate court sides with the lower ones, that could be a harbinger of even more state secrecy.
Judges in Hanover and Chesterfield seemed hung up over whether “undercover officers” and “plainclothes officers” were the same thing. Generally, undercover officers are possibly impersonating someone else while investigating crimes – drug sales, illegal guns and prostitution, for example.
Plainclothes officers can be homicide or major crimes detectives who don’t usually wear uniforms. They aren’t trying to fool citizens about who they are.
“There’s a fundamental distinction between a plainclothes officer, who’s prepared to disclose identification to enforce the law, to an undercover officer” using an alias, attorney Bodoh said.
In turning over the roster, though, undercover officers wouldn’t use their aliases. So what are departments trying to protect? After all, an occasional undercover cop who also patrols should give his real name and badge number when pulling someone over.
Nor could I find instances where an undercover officer’s ID was revealed by news outlets or public-disclosure advocates that led to injury or death. Bodoh and Megan Rhyne, executive director for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said they weren’t aware of any incidents.
Getting the personnel lists and salaries is “a basic measure of accountability,” Rhyne told me. “… We don’t have secret police forces.”
Virginia needs to stop treating its citizens like bad stepchildren
This issue would be moot if public agencies in Virginia, including police departments, released more info about investigations and their decision-making process in the first place. As I’ve written previously, many disseminate only what’s mandated. They routinely withhold what’s discretionary – often to the point of absurdity.
This posture reveals a certain contempt for the press and the public in Virginia, especially at a time when so many newspapers in the state have closed or jettisoned staff members. Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications reported Virginia had lost 23 local newspapers from 2005 to 2023.
Residents have tried to pick up some of the slack by filing FOIA requests. That’s especially critical when the details involve local government, police and school divisions.
I hope the state appeals court will provide clarity that bolsters the state’s FOIA. The shame is justices have to rule on something public agencies should do willingly.
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