Citizen Report No. 1670109789 - 860546833

CLEET Number :  0090741

License Type :  Fulltime Peace Officer

License Status :  Active

License Effective Date :  10/14/2004

License Expiry Date :  N/A

Johnston County Sheriff, Gary Wayne Dodd, chooses not to comply with request for records submitted under The Oklahoma Open Records Act (Title 51 Oklahoma Statutes § 24A.1 et seq.).

An Open Record's Request for the department's use of force records was submitted to the Johnston County Sheriff's Office on 8/29/2022 via Muckrock.com.  The Act requires that public bodies provide “prompt, reasonable access to its records,” which Attorney General Drew Edmondson in 1999 defined as meaning “only the time required to locate and compile the public records.”

It had been over 60 days without so much as an acknowledgment of the request, although they had no difficulty in processing a previous request for records through the same platform.

Also to note:  Carter County Sheriff's Office was given the same request, and even after retaining an attorney to answer was still able to do so.  

UPDATED 12/23/2022:

Despite their previous request being fulfilled via email, the Sheriff office changed their policy abruptly and refused to fulfill the request via email, instead mailing the acknowledgement on 11/04/2022.  Johnston County Sheriff Office emailed the acknowledgement to Muckrock on 12/12/2022, stating the mailed copy was received by Muckrock on 11/08/2022. 

A response from the requester was sent via Muckrock.com on 12/22/2022 stating in part:

"In fact, your agency took no issue, and chose to deliver your response via email with Muckrock on 01/21/2022. It leaves one to believe that the sudden change backwards from convenience, towards a process with known delays, is not only contrary to the spirit of the Oklahoma Open Records Act, but appears to be a deliberate effort to chill the request by due to the subject matter." 

The acknowledgement from the Sheriff's Office claimed:

"I am not aware of a module in our current reporting system, as provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, for Use of Force incidents."

However, it was confirmed with OSBI's statistics department that Johnston County Sheriff Office has participated in their data collection program (including use of force data) in both 2021 and 2022.  This indicates that the Sheriff Office not only holds records of the kind requested, but also likely has the records in electronic format although their acknowledgement stated:

"I do not personally house the recent completed Use of Force forms."

and...

"The current administration employs use of a single paper file within the administration offices, of which I do not have immediate access".

The above statement was signed by the "Administrative Assistant" Crystal Alvarez..  

The current status of the record request may be viewed HERE.