The city of Tulsa made the right call when it relented on public access to recorded 911 calls late Friday.
The city had previously denied a Tulsa World request for recordings of calls from a recent fatal shooting involving an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper at a local motel.
The refusal was wrong, a break in the city's long-standing practices and an invitation to conspiracy theorists to cook up wild scenarios.
A statement from the city attorney's office says that the release of the recordings was discretionary - the city can release that sort of record, but it doesn't have to.
When, on at least seven previous occasions, the city has released 911 recordings, it was doing so because it wanted to, not because it had to - or so that line of reasoning would suggest.
Ultimately, Police Chief Chuck Jordan backed down on the issue and released the recordings, saying the issue had been complicated by the fact that it was "a state issue."
"The Tulsa Police Department remains committed to transparency and in the public interest we are now releasing the 911 recording as requested by the Tulsa World," Jordan said.
We congratulate Jordan for doing the right thing and for his public commitment to transparency, but we puzzle over the idea that there might be less reason for public access to public records because of "a state issue."
One reason for the Open Records Act is so the public can be sure that the same standards are used by law enforcement in dealing with everyone.
That protects the public, but it also protects law enforcement. If the public can examine records such as the 911 recordings it can have greater confidence in the police department. No public purpose is served by keeping the public guessing. That breeds suspicion and distrust.
The idea that the release of 911 recordings is discretionary is not as simple as the city attorney's office makes it sound.
The Open Records Act says that radio logs are among the law enforcement records that must be made public.
In a 1985 opinion, the attorney general said there is no statutory definition of what a radio log is, but added that, for purposes of that opinion, a log was assumed to mean "any recorded electronic transmissions made between the police dispatcher(s) and other parties."
That certainly seems to cover recorded 911 calls.
In this case, the city did the right thing, eventually. We hope it continues to do so.
Original Print Headline: 911 Recordings
Editorials
The 6,300 employees at the American Airlines Maintenance Facility in Tulsa could use some certainty, but they're going to have to wait.
The loss of 12 lives, 13 counting the suspect, in the Navy shipyard shootings Monday is tragic. With each killing spree the natural reaction is to search for the motive or the psychological reason for such a horrific event.
