FILE - A Seattle Police Department patch is seen on an officer’s uniform, July 17, 2016, in Seattle. The Washington Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday, June 25, 2024 in a case that will decide whether the names of four Seattle police officers who attended events in the nation’s capital on the day of the insurrection are protected under the state’s public records law.
Sam Sueoka, a law student at the time, filed a Public Records Act request for the OPA investigation. The officers, filing under the pseudonym John Doe 1-5, filed a request for a preliminary injunction to stop their release. The Public Records Act already includes a level of protection by allowing agencies to notify a person if their records are requested. At that point, the person can take legal action to protect their own Constitutional rights. It should not be up to the agency to make that determination, she said.