Except under specific circumstances, Incident Reports, arrest reports and investigator files, defined as public records under Section 6250 of the Government Code, are exempt from disclosure. Those specific exceptions are defined in the 1982 amendment to Section 6254(f) of the Government Code.
The purpose of the amendment is to clarify the rights of the public to access non-sensitive law enforcement records. The revised section addresses this issue by classifying those persons requesting record information as victims and/or the general public (including the media).
Although legislation governing the release of crime and arrest information does not differentiate between adult and juvenile subjects, refer to the Juvenile chapter of this manual for Department policy on the release of information concerning juveniles.
Public records are defined under Section 6250 of the Government Code as any recordation containing information relating to the conduct of the public's business prepared, owned, used or retained by any local agency, regardless of physical form or characteristics. For the purpose of this manual section, the term "information" shall include any material that is maintained in the normal course of business in written, photographic or electronically recorded form.
This section does not apply to the dissemination of criminal record information. For dissemination of such information, refer to section 3-09/110.00 of this chapter.