Mitchell v. Office of Open Records

In Mitchell v. Office of Open Records, 997 A.2d 1262 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2010), the requester (Mitchell), an inmate, filed a RTKL "request with the PSP seeking copies of any documents showing the time the officers arrived and departed from Mitchell's residence ... in serving a search warrant." Id. at 1263. The PSP responded that it had found only one record relating to this request, and that this record was exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 708(b)(16) of the RTKL and Section 9106(c)(4)of the CHRIA. Mitchell, 997 A.2d at 1263. Mitchell appealed to the OOR. In the course of the appeals process, the PSP described the document relevant to Mitchell's request as "a single-page Automated Incident Memo System (AIMS) query response," and explained that: (1) the AIMS record "manifestly pertained to a criminal investigation" and was therefore exempt under Section 708(b)(16)(ii); (2) the content of the AIMS record would "obviously reveal the institution, progress or result of a criminal investigation" and was therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 708(b)(16)(vi)(A); (3) that the AIMS record constituted investigative information exempt from disclosure under the CHRIA because it was assembled as a result of an inquiry into a criminal incident. Id. at 1263-64. The OOR determined that the AIMS record was exempt under Section 708(b)(16)(vi)(A) and denied Mitchell's appeal. Id. at 1264. Before this Court, Mitchell argued that the AIMS record was not exempt from disclosure under the RTKL or the CHRIA. The Court determined that the OOR properly relied on the affidavits submitted by the PSP in determining that the AIMS record was exempt from disclosure under Section 708(b)(16). Id. at 1265. Mitchell argued that the AIMS record was, in fact, an incident report equivalent to a police blotter and, therefore, a public record under the CHRIA. Id. at 1265. The Court noted that the "CHRIA concerns the collection, maintenance, dissemination and receipt of criminal history record information," and that Section 9102 of the CHRIA excludes investigative information from the definition of criminal history record information. Id. (citing 18 Pa. C.S. 9102). Referring to Section 9102, the Court stated that "investigative information is defined as 'information assembled as a result of the performance of any inquiry, formal or informal, into a criminal incident or an allegation of criminal wrongdoing and may include modus operandi information.'" Id. (quoting 18 Pa. C.S. 9102).