Police Flight Logs Must Be Made Public, Court Says

(CN) - A Florida county's airborne police division must allow public inspection of flight logs for the time they worked on official county business, a Florida appeals court ruled.

The Professional Law Enforcement Association won a circuit court order to make the information public. The 3rd District Court of Appeal affirmed the decision but ruled that a pilot must only make public his records of time working for Miami-Dade County.

"The officers are paid by the county to make these logbook entries," Judge Salter wrote, "and the entries are made in connection with the transaction of official business of the aviation unit."

The county unsuccessfully argued that the association could get the same information by copying the unit's daily activity reports.

"That argument is unavailing," Salter ruled. "The fact that pertinent information may exist in more than one format is not a basis for exemption or denial of the request."

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