Are Police Reports Public Record In Pennsylvania ?

In Tapco, Inc. v. Township of Neville, 695 A.2d 460 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997), the Court observed that prior precedent had established that police incident reports are "police blotters," which are defined as public records under the Criminal History Records Information Act. The Court then reasoned that the more general Right-to-Know Law necessarily extended to all documents specifically defined as public records in other statutes. Because police incident reports, or police blotters, were defined as public records under the specific Criminal History Records Information Act, a fortiori, they were public records under the Right-to-Know Law. Tapco, Inc., 695 A.2d at 464.