Here are five things to know about this issue:
1. Not just names: Records released by Kettering police about the police shootings redact not just the names of the officers, but also narrative descriptions of what happened before, during and after the shootings that wounded two suspects. Police cite Marsy’s Law and other public records exemptions.
Here is one page from the records released in one shooting:
Credit: Josh Sweigart
Credit: Josh Sweigart
2. Not just Kettering: The Columbus Dispatch filed a lawsuit against Columbus police over that city withholding information on officer-involved shootings citing Marsy’s Law. It has also been used in other states that have Marsy’s Laws, as well as other departments in Ohio.
3. Not intended: The group behind Marsy’s Law says this was not what the law was meant do do. “When reviewing the conduct of an on-duty law enforcement officer who has used physical force, the right to privacy of their name must quickly yield to the public’s right to know,” said Marsy’s Law for Ohio in a statement to this news outlet.
4. Marsy’s Law: Marsy’s Law was approved by voters as part of state constitutional amendments expanding crime victim rights in 1994 and 2017. The 2017 amendment went into effect in 2023 after enabling legislation was passed in 2022. A man who campaigned for the two amendments, and the state lawmaker behind the enabling law — who represents Kettering — both say there was never any discussion of having it apply to police officers who shoot people in the line of duty.
5. City’s response: In response to efforts by the Dayton Daily News to obtain the information using Ohio public records law — including sending a letter from the news outlet’s attorney — Kettering city officials say if the law intended to exempt police officers, it would have said so.
They point to the Ohio Constitution, which defines a victim as “a person against whom the criminal offense or delinquent act is committed or who is directly and proximately harmed by the commission of the offense or act.”
