Lawsuit seeks to open up Virginia police employment records

Nonprofit newsroom claims state Department of Criminal Justice Services improperly withheld names and records of law enforcement officers, preventing the public from tracking wayward cops.

By Louis Hansen

Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO

A nonprofit newsroom has sued the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for the certification and disciplinary records of law enforcement officers, an effort that aims to give police departments and the public a better way to track wayward cops. 

The nonprofit Invisible Institute charges that DCJS has not complied with the state Freedom of Information Act by failing to release the names of officers and other information on certification and disciplinary actions, according to a suit filed in September in Richmond Circuit Court. 

DCJS withheld officer names from a database of nearly 100,000 active and inactive law enforcement personnel, according to the court filing. The department claimed the names were exempt from disclosure because the officers could be tasked with undercover assignments.

Focus on police misconduct and criminal behavior ignited after the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of an officer with a lengthy history of misconduct complaints. Reform advocates say transparency into a law enforcement officer’s record helps prevent fired cops with a history of abuse from being hired at other agencies. It’s also imperative, advocates say, that the public knows who is policing their communities and whether they are qualified as law enforcement officers.

“The release of the requested information would allow the public to monitor if officers are sufficiently regulated — including whether they are prevented from evading repercussions for misconduct by changing jobs,” wrote lawyers for the plaintiffs from the University of Virginia School of Law First Amendment Clinic.

DCJS officials did not return messages seeking comment, and the agency has not filed a response to the complaint in court.

Virginia is one of 15 states that legally bans the release of officer data or has asserted in court that the information is exempt from disclosure, according to reporting by the Invisible Institute and a consortium of nonprofit newsrooms. The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO has collaborated with the Invisible Institute to report on the state’s reluctance to release certain police personnel records.

After the Floyd murder and subsequent protests, state lawmakers vowed to enhance oversight to prevent bad cops from quietly moving to new law enforcement jobs. A law passed in 2020 required departments to complete reviews of misconduct even if an officer resigned and to share disciplinary reports with state regulators who have the power to certify and decertify officers.

But the reform efforts have stalled, advocates say.

Michael Morisy, CEO of the nonprofit newsroom MuckRock, which is part of the consortium, said the state had previously released the information now being withheld. For example, a similar FOIA request made in 2022 produced the names of decertified officers. “In Virginia, we’ve increasingly seen officers’ names are secret,” he said. “You’re building an anonymous police force. Ultimately, the public is in charge of how these departments are run.”

The original FOIA request to DCJS was filed in March 2023 by Richmond resident Tom Nash, a journalist affiliated with MuckRock. The request sought officers' names, state identification numbers, certification statuses, and details of any disciplinary procedures, as well as other information on job positions and training history, according to the Invisible Institute suit.

DCJS tracks the certification and decertification of officers, as well as their employment histories. Five days after Nash’s request was filed, DCJS claimed the records were exempt from disclosure because they were related to personnel information, the suit said. The agency refused to release any information. 

Lawyers for the Invisible Institute re-sent a copy of the original request to DCJS in April 2024. In May, DCJS produced some of the records but withheld officers’ names. The department cited a December 2023 circuit court ruling in Hanover County allowing a police department to shield its officers’ names from the public, claiming officers may need to go undercover for investigations. 

The DCJS database has the names of approximately 100,000 current and former law enforcement officers, including police, sheriff deputies and jail and prison guards, department director Jackson Miller wrote in response to the FOIA request.

Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said attempts to shield the names of public employees in the state “have repeatedly failed.”

Both the General Assembly and state courts have consistently found that certain parts of personnel records are private but that the names of public employees are public, she said. The names of professionals who require state regulation and a license — such as physicians, lawyers and police officers — have been ruled by Virginia courts to be public information. 

“You’re being licensed,” Rhyne said, “so it’s not private.”

Reach Louis Hansen at louis.hansen@vcij.org.