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PR 15-51 Town of Portsmouth v. Rhode Island Department of Public Safety – Violation Found

The DPS violated the APRA when it failed to provide redacted documents responsive to the Town's APRA request. The Town sought documents concerning a particular investigation but the DPS denied the request indicating that the disclosure "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-2(4)(D)(c). Although this Department concluded that the incident report at issue did contain identifying type information, such as name and other information that could lead to one's identity, the Town was not seeking reports identifiable to a particular person(s). As such, "[a]ny reasonably segregable portion of a public record excluded by subdivision 38-2-2(4) shall be available for public inspection after the deletion of the information which is the basis of the exclusion." R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3(b). The DPS's denial failed to take into consideration this provision.

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