Sandy Hook

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 "a Connecticut judge said Friday that he wants to hear the 911 recordings from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting before ruling whether they can be released to the media."The judge set a Nov. 25 hearing on whether the recordings can be sealed so he access them, the AP also reports.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, Connecticut has been having a huge debate on where to draw the line between public access to law enforcement records like 911 calls and protecting victims' families from further trauma and further invasions of their privacy. During testimony before a legislative task force, the spouse of one of the adults killed in the shooting suggested a compromise, according to the Hartford Courant: "Bill Sherlach, whose wife Mary was among the six adults and 20 children shot to death on Dec. 14, told members of the Task Force on Victim Privacy and the Public's Right to Know that he's willing to support a compromise: the release of a written account of the 911 calls made that day, as long as the audio is not made public. 'Transcripts can rely all the information that the public wants without having to hear the sounds of a slaughter in the background,'' he said."

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."'

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.

Connecticut is only one of nine states restricting the public disclosure of crime scene photos, Connecticut News Junkie reports on a survey conducted by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research. Connecticut also is only one of 11 states restricting the public disclosure of 911 calls.

"Over the past few weeks the legislature’s research staff has been compiling reports for a task force convened by lawmakers to weigh the privacy of crime victims against the public’s right to know under the state’s Freedom of Information Act," Conneticut News Junkie reports. "The panel was created by a law that carved out new disclosure restrictions on the release of some law enforcement records pertaining to homicide victims and victims who are children" in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings.

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.