On it’s face this seems like a simple issue, but as you unpack it a bit you begin to see that the issues Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen wrestled with are pretty significant.  From the Opinion page of the Capital Times:

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a strong and important opinion this month favoring the public’s right to know about traffic accidents and crime in local communities.

Van Hollen agreed with state newspapers that basic information identifying people in accident and incident reports is open to public inspection under Wisconsin law.

It doesn’t matter that a federal law prevents the state Division of Motor Vehicles from releasing some of the same information to the public. State law holds local police agencies to a higher and more open standard — even when those local police agencies get their information from the DMV.

Police agencies across Wisconsin should heed Van Hollen’s forceful and smart opinion. Van Hollen has made it clear that local police should allow ordinary citizens, newspapers and other media easy access to basic information identifying people on routine reports.

Read the Rest…