October 7, 1999; City of Fairmont
10/7/1999 10:14:43 AM
This is an opinion of the Commissioner of Administration issued pursuant to section 13.072 of Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13 - the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. It is based on the facts and information available to the Commissioner as described below.
Facts and Procedural History:For purposes of simplification, the information presented by the person who requested this opinion and the response from the government entity with which the person disagrees are presented in summary form. Copies of the complete submissions are on file at the offices of IPA and, except for any data classified as not public, are available for public access. On August 16, 1999, IPA received a letter from Elizabeth W. Bloomquist, City Attorney for the City of Fairmont. In this letter, Ms. Bloomquist asked the Commissioner to issue an advisory opinion regarding the classification of data contained in the Master Name and Incident Listing (MNI) maintained by the City. A summary of the facts of this matter follows. According to Ms. Bloomquist, the MNI is the central repository for information collected by the Martin County Sheriff's Department and the Fairmont Police Department on requests for service and other law enforcement contacts with citizens. A sample entry from the MNI submitted by Ms. Bloomquist contains various data about an individual such as name, address, telephone number, physical description, date of birth, Minnesota driver's license number, associates, and dates and descriptions of previous incidents involving law enforcement. According to the abbreviation key provided by Ms. Bloomquist, the MNI may also contain data about, inter alia, victims, witnesses, and handgun permits. Issue:In her request for an opinion, Ms. Blomquist asked the Commissioner to address the following issue:
Discussion:Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, subdivision 1, all government data are presumed to be public unless otherwise classified by statute, federal law, or temporary classification (see section 13.06.) The data in the MNI are law enforcement data under section 13.82, i.e., data collected or created by a law enforcement agency. Section 13.82 provides that certain law enforcement data are always public, certain law enforcement data are never public, and certain law enforcement data may become public depending on the occurrence of certain events. Section 13.82, subdivisions 2, 3, and 4, contain descriptions of types of data and associated data elements that are always classified as public. However, the data described in those subdivisions are not the only public data maintained by law enforcement agencies. Those data elements were specified in order to ensure that those data could not be protected as active criminal investigative data under section 13.82, subdivision 5. The general presumption of section 13.03, that government data are public unless otherwise classified by state or federal law, applies to law enforcement data. (See also Advisory Opinions 97-023 and 97-024.) Certain law enforcement data are never public. For example, under section 13.82, subdivision 10, the identities of undercover agents, informants, certain witnesses and victims (under certain conditions), and victims of criminal sexual conduct, among others, are never public. Some law enforcement data, i.e., active criminal investigative data, are not public while an investigation is active, pursuant to section 13.82, subdivision 5. When the investigation is no longer active, criminal investigative data, with certain exceptions as provided in subdivisions 5 and 10, are classified as public. Accordingly, the data contained in the MNI are classified as public except for the following: active criminal investigative data, under section 13.82, subdivision 5; other data related to allegations of child abuse that are protected under subdivisions 5a and 5b; data protected under subdivisions 5c and 5d related to allegations of maltreatment of vulnerable adults; and the identities of individuals protected under section 13.82, subdivision 10. Further, there may be data contained in the MNI that are classified as not public under other statutes outside Chapter 13. For example, certain data on juveniles are classified as not public under sections 260B.171 and 260C.171; data about traffic accidents are not public under section 169.09, subdivision 13; data pertaining to permits to carry firearms are not public under section 13.36; and individual Social Security numbers are not public pursuant to section 13.49. Opinion:Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issue raised by Ms. Bloomquist is as follows:
Signed: David F. Fisher
Dated: October 7, 1999 |
Law enforcement data
Firearms (13.87, subd. 2 / 13.36)
Master name index (MNI)
Law enforcement data
