Under FOIA-Freedom of Information Act police investigation records
should be open to the public once the case is closed. There should not
be any problems preserving them in your collection and continuing the
availability to the public, outside of possible PR problems if someone
gets upset. I would check with your state to make sure there are no
specific types of cases that would remain closed, such as crimes
involving youth, etc. (those things vary by state). The one thing I
would be wary of is considering limiting access to things that were open
to anyone before the transfer from the PD to you.
This is the type of thing that may contain a wealth of historical
material and provide insight into events that the only version most
people see is the newspaper account. Even as I say that, I would not
expect a rush to see the material. As a journalist for 20 years we got
into things occasionally that had never been touched since they were
filed, and sometimes found such things had been routinely tossed after a
specified amount of time. Just feel lucky they are not throwing them in
the dumpster.
At my position today with our museum we received a large amount of
county tax, and other records. One thing we had to agree to was to help
 research what was open and what was not - Crippled Children's Tax Fund
records are not open in Kansas apparently (what ever they are exactly).
We also had to agree to maintain a way to access all the tax records
from 1880+ on. We developed a request form and will eventually post it
online...although in the past 6 months we have had zero requests for
info. At least we have them in order and more available than they were
in the Court House basement.
Good Luck

Chris Taylor
Atchison County Historical Society
[log in to unmask]

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Sarah Johnson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 12:01 PM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Restricted photo collection
>>
>>
>>Hello listers,
>>
>>I am in need of some advice.  We are about to receive a photo
>>collection from the police department.  The collection ranges
>>from 1930 - 1970 and includes photographs and negatives of
>>local events as well as crime scenes. From what I understand
>>the photos and negs are labled with dates and location and
>>many, if not all, people pictured are identified.
>>
>>We understand that this is a very touchy collection.  Has
>>anyone ever received something similar and if so what kind of
>>policy do you have regarding use for research, public access,
>>processing (i.e. who?, do you use a locked database?  etc.)
>>
>>Thanks in advance for all of your help!
>>
>>Sarah Johnson
>>Educational Programming Coordinator
>>Manitowoc County Historical Society
>>P.O. Box 574
>>Manitowoc, WI 54221
>>920/ 684-4445
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>

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