HARTFORD, Conn. – Proving how difficult it is to balance victim privacy with public disclosure Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee passed its own proposal to compete with one drafted by the Government Administration and Elections Committee.
Both bills are rooted in recommendations drafted by a task force which met throughout last year. The panel was created by the legislature as part of a bill which carved out exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The Judiciary Committee passed the legislation by a 27-11 vote on the eve of its deadline to act on legislation.
The Judiciary Committee’s legislation hews more closely to the recommendations of the task force, but in some respects it adds more Freedom of Information restrictions. It creates a special class of public records, which the public could inspect but not copy. Recordings of 911 emergency calls and pictures depicting the bodies of adult homicide victims would be included in this class of records.
Like the task force, the committee places the burden of releasing these records on the person requesting the documents.
See the complete story at CT News Junkie.
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