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VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. CONSTRUCTION OF REPORTS
SUBMITTED TO POLICE IN CONFIDENCE."
October 4, 1982
The Honorable Bernard S. Cohen
Member, House of Delegates
82-83 707
This is in reply to your letter of September 22, 1982, concerning
the construction of the phrase "submitted in confidence" which
appears in §2.l-342(b)(1) of the Code of Virginia and is part of
the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, §§2.1-340 through
2.1-346.1, (the "Act"). According to your letter, a report was
prepared by one police officer and submitted to the chief of police
at the latter's request. You state that the report is otherwise
subject to disclosure by the Act. Section 2.1-342(b)(1) specifically
exempts from the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Act:
"Memoranda, correspondence, evidence and complaints
related to criminal investigations, reports submitted to the state
and local ace and the campus police departments of police
institutions of higher education as established by Chapter 17 of
Title 23 (23-232 et seq.) of the Code of Virginia in
confidence...." (Emphasis added.)
As a general rule, words in a statute should be given their usual,
commonly understood meaning.1 The
term "police" is defined generally as "the department of government
concerned primarily with maintenance of public order, safety and
health and enforcement of lasw.2
Accordingly, I am of the opinion that the language, "reports
submitted to the...police...in confidence.." in §2.1-342(b)(1),
encompasses reports submitted by persons outside of the police
department to the police department rather than to internal reports
submitted by one police officer to another.3
To conclude otherwise would be contrary to the purpose of the Act as
expressly stated by the General Assembly.4
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Footnotes:
1 1980-1981 Report of the Attorney General at 58.
See, also, The Covington Virginian, Inc. v. Woods, 182 Va.
538,9 S. 2d 406 (1944).
2 Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1976).
3 Such reports may be exempt under other provisions
of the Act, for example, memoranda and reports related to criminal
investigations or personnel matters would be exempt.
4 Section 2.1-340.1 requires that the Act "shall be
liberally construed to promote an increased awareness by all persons
of governmental activities and afford every opportunity to citizens
to witness the operations of government Any exception or exemption
from applicability shall be narrowly construed in order that no thing
which should be public may be hidden from any person."
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