When the Louisville Metro Police Department refused to turn over records showing locations of license plate readers across the city, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting appealed to the attorney general and argued LMPD violated the state’s open records law.
The attorney general is an arbiter of public records disputes and can decide whether a government agency broke the law by withholding documents. These decisions can be appealed in court.
In an opinion published this month, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sided with LMPD, finding Louisville Metro officials were legally justified to shield records that would show where the city installed nearly 200 cameras that record details about passing cars, including their license plate numbers, in a database LMPD shares with other police across the U.S…