Newtown

After a nearly year-long open-records fight, a prosecutor relented on his opposition to the Associated Press's request to get copies of the 911 calls made as Adam Lanza shot schoolchildren and school professionals within 11 minutes of entering Sandy Hook Elementary School. The calls were released today, according to the AP. 

Teresa Rousseau, whose daughter Lauren was among the six educators killed and an editor at the Danbury News-Times, said "there was no need to play the tapes on the radio or television," the AP said. '"I think there's a big difference between secrecy and privacy," she said. "We have these laws so government isn't secret, not so we're invading victims' privacy,'" the AP also reported.

The Associated Press reports that prosecutor State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III announced today he will no longer fight against the disclosure of 911 calls made as Adam Lanza shot schoolchildren and school officials at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Last week, Sedensky was ordered by a trial judge to release the 911 calls to the Associated Press. The AP says it wants to review the recordings, in part, to scrutinize the law enforcement response to the mass shooting.

There is a current debate in Connecticut on where to draw the line on access t0 law enforcement records like 911 tapes and crime-scene photos and the public's right to know in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. An attorney for most of the families of the Sandy Hook victims testified at a legislative task force that they do not want public disclosure of the 911 calls made because of the shooting, The Norwich Bulletin reports. While attorney Morgan Rueckert acknowledged the argument that the media has standards and does not always use the information accessed through right-t0-know requests, '"the reality is, every person now with a computer is an editor, a journalist and a publisher. The law needs to change to keep up and to stay in line with our peers."'

AP Editor William J. Kole writes that reason that his news organization requested the tapes of 911 calls made about the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is because it would be in the public interest to examine "the law enforcement response to one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history." But, while Kole said a prosecutor's refusal to release the records breaks the law, he also points out that the AP may not use the 911 calls: "It’s journalism’s dirty little secret: Just because we have information doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to use it."

A legislative task force appointed to give advice to elected representatives on the release of crime scene photos and emergency-call recordings heard testimony that "the news media needs access to as much information as possible -- even gruesome photos -- about Connecticut homicides in order to better inform the public," The Connecticut Post reported.

Meanwhile, a Connecticut legislator, whose district includes the town where the Sandy Hook school shootings occurred, questioned trusting the judgment of the media about releasing such materials. '"The idea of the public's need to know and the public's intrusion versus the victims' rights was obscene, in my mind. Having been there, having observed the behavior of the media was outrageous. To ask me to specifically trust the judgments of the media, I'm not willing to do that,"' The Post reported the legislator saying.

A Connecticut panel, appointed to review the state's public records laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, heard testimony related to its charge to "recommend to lawmakers how to alter the delicate balance of victims' right to privacy and the public's right to know about crimes and the operations of agencies like police departments," The Connecticut Post reports.  One father whose son was murdered asked: '"What right do have to see my son's body or hear his last moments, just because such information is in a government file cabinet?"' The Post reported. But proponents of disclosure testified it would keep law enforcement accountable for their response in emergency situations.

The Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission ruled that the 911 phone calls related to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., should be released, the Associated Press reported. The commission rejected a prosecutor's argument that there was still some law enforcement purpose for the records to remain undisclosed. An appeal is promised by law enforcement, the AP reported. The AP also said it requested the records, in part, to review the police response to the school shooting by Adam Lanza: "On the day of the shooting, the AP requested documents, including copies of 911 calls, as it does routinely in news gathering, in part to examine the police response to the massacre that sent officers from multiple agencies racing to the school."

After a hearing officer from Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission recommended that 911 calls related to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting  in Newtown be released, a prosecutor has objected on the grounds, among others, that the commission does not have jurisdiction and that the recommendation would violate a new state law exempting many records of the shooting from the right-to-know arena. The media outlets seeking the information want to examine how law enforcement responded to the school shooting. The full commission will hear the case later this month.