Judiciary Committee advances bill strengthening police oversight

Government employee personnel records are exempted from disclosure under the Wyoming Public Records Act. That’s made it difficult for the state’s certifying agency to access police psych evals.

The state agency tasked with determining whether cops are fit for duty cannot consistently access the personnel records it needs to make that determination.

The Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission has been blocked from viewing these records by the officers themselves and by law enforcement leaders fearing litigation, as well as the courts who have ruled in their favor.

During one such ruling in August, Albany County District Court Judge Misha Westby said it seemed to her that POST should be allowed access, but without clear statute or case law pointing the way, the law as currently written blocks POST from getting those records.

“It also seems to me there should be an exception (for POST to access these records),” Westby said. “But I can’t find an exception that applies.”

This legal state of affairs could change.

A draft bill endorsed this week by the Joint Judiciary Committee would require law enforcement agencies to hand over psychological evaluations and other personnel records to POST — when requested and only for the purpose of determining fitness for certification. The law would still forbid the sharing of those records outside of POST, such as with the public.

“It is difficult … to ensure that people are hired properly, and then maintain employment properly, when you don't necessarily get access to the records (that) could prove or disprove allegations in an investigation,” Walsh told the committee this week.

The judiciary committee voted unanimously to advance the bill during its last scheduled meeting of the interim. The bill — hewing closely to a similar piece of legislation that failed during last year’s session — is now set to be introduced during the Wyoming Legislature’s budget session this winter.

Winning the endorsement of a legislative committee gives a bill a better chance during the session proper, but it’s no guarantee of passage. And bills are typically less likely to pass during a budget session such as 2024, wherein a bill needs to clear a two-thirds vote just to be introduced.

Public records and personnel privacy

The problem lawmakers are seeking to fix stems from the Wyoming Public Records Act, and the bill is set to change the language of that act. Specifically, the bill would carve out an exception to an exception.

The Wyoming Public Records Act lays out the right of citizens to observe the actions of their government by reviewing the documents it creates in the process of making laws, setting rules and enforcing both, of spending money, of carrying out justice and engaging in various other governmental actions.

But not every scrap of paper produced by a government agency is subject to disclosure.

There are exceptions, for example, when it comes to documents that might wreck the government’s ability to function or that might aid in a terrorist attack. Think test questions for licensure exams or blueprints showing the specific layout of government buildings.

Among these exceptions, the act also strictly forbids the release of personnel records for government employees — including local peace officers and detention officers — to anyone except “the duly elected and appointed officials who supervise the work of the person in interest.”

And there’s the rub.

For county deputies, the local sheriff serves as that supervisor and has no problems accessing personnel records for their local deputies; similarly, for city police officers, the local chief of police serves as that supervisor.

But deputies and sheriffs have argued — and district courts have agreed — that POST does not qualify as a supervisor because it is a separate agency and does not fall in that direct line of command.

The bottom line is that POST has been tasked with reviewing personnel records it cannot access, at least not with any consistency.

In Albany County, it’s been five years since then-Deputy Derek Colling shot and killed an unarmed man, sparking a local movement for greater police accountability and transparency. Colling is no longer a deputy with the sheriff’s office and his certification recently expired. But POST has not yet been able to make a determination of its own because it has not been able to access the psychological evaluations or other personnel records that might aid in making that determination.

It’s unlikely that Colling would be rehired by any law enforcement agency in Albany County — given the public outcry that would probably occur if he were. But without a determination from POST, he is still free to pursue law enforcement jobs elsewhere, throughout the state or outside of it.