Newtown Township Fighting Order To Turn Over Police Officer Information To Inmates
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Kurt Ferguson, the Newtown Township Manager, addressed the Township's decision to appeal an order from the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records that prison inmates are entitled to information about police officers, including addresses of their homes and previous places of employment.
Talking with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Ferguson said many of the prisoners requesting this information have committed violent crimes.
"We have no evidence that there is some underhanded plot to do anything other than to put that fear into those officers and, frankly, these requests, when they come in, oftentimes, they're people that have done very bad things. The thought that they have your address or your parents address, there is a level of legitimacy in the thought for these officers, I can't be home all the time. This is not someone who was arrested for parking violations. These are people that did some bad things."
He explained that among the documents being requested are things like job applications.
"Where this gets murkier is, in those job applications, for police officers, there are certain things that you ask for. Not just where they worked before and, oftentimes, they might have been in smaller police departments. They might've been in large police departments. Also, we ask for what trainings they have. There are institutions that provide firearms training, tactical training, and what happens is, if I do not redact that information, the inmates then will make open records requests of some of those other places."
Ferguson stated that some of the inmate requests are very sophisticated and believes their intention is to intimidate police.
"I think, across the Commonwealth, what we're seeing is more and more with managers that I speak with that this is almost entertainment for the inmates and they have individuals who are also prisoners who act on behalf of other prisoners who organize these requests, who know how to ask for information, who have enough knowledge of the law to know what they're entitled to and what they're not entitled to, to work their way around the system in an attempt to get personal information about police officers."
