Cowles Publishing Co. v. State Patrol

Callow, J. —

Cowles Publishing Company is the owner of two newspapers, the Spokane Chronicle and the Spokesman-Review. The newspapers seek access to the names of law enforcement officers against whom complaints have been sustained after internal investigations conducted by their respective law enforcement agencies. We hold that those names were properly withheld pursuant to the RCW 42.17.310(1) (d) investigative records exemption to the public disclosure act.

During the summer of 1983, a reporter investigating an incident in which two Spokane police officers shot and killed a man was told that…