

January 10, 2010
Employer: Pierce County Sheriff's Department |
January 10, 2010
Employer: Pierce County Sheriff's Department |
The Washington Public Records Act is a series of laws designed to guarantee that the public has access to public records of government bodies at all levels. Washington law defines records as "any writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics."A recent Supreme Court ruling has said that accident reports are also public records.
Anyone can request records and a statement of purpose is not required, nor are there restrictions placed on the use of records. The Washington Public Records Act allows 5 days for records responses.
We the People have a Right to Know according to the Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS], past Presidents (of both major political parties), Congress, and the United States Department of Justice. As an expression of that Right to Know, we have coordinated valuable information from a number of resources into a single, public-facing, searchable database.
Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly.
- William O. Douglas, Associate Justice (1939 - 1975)Supreme Court of the United States