Public access

It's not enough to have state laws that require open government and public access to records.

Not when government employs an army of bureaucrats and armed officers who are protective of their turf, suspicious of the press and full of their own ideas about which proceedings and documents should be subject to public inspection.

The Review-Journal revealed as much Monday when it reported that Family Court officials sealed temporary protective order documents starting this year, in direct violation of Nevada's public records law. Temporary protective orders are supposed to be available to the public on request.

The Review-Journal discovered the abuse May 24 in trying to investigate domestic violence allegations against a Las Vegas police captain. A clerk refused to provide a copy of the temporary protection order application filed by the captain's wife, saying all requests were sealed. The next day, a different clerk offered an identical response and an explanation that all such records had been sealed since Jan. 1.

That was news to the court's chief judge and executive officer. When the public records violation was brought to their attention, they blamed it on confusion about a federal law that prohibits some protection order documents from being posted electronically, saying a supervisor wrongly imposed blanket secrecy.

It's a serious problem when the front-line keepers of public records aren't adequately trained in public records law. It's an even bigger problem when their decisions aren't reviewed or approved by officials who know the law.

But it's not a surprising problem considering some in the courts strongly believe citizens are too dumb to make sense of public records. Written suggestions submitted to the Nevada Supreme Court by Family Court officials warned that "the written record is often skewed" in domestic disputes, and that an ignorant public can't be expected to reach sound conclusions based on them.

It is indeed hard to get at the truth when a relationship has deteriorated to the point of requesting protection. But the only way for the public to verify that government is handling these requests effectively and fairly is to be able to see the documents considered by the court. Are protection orders working as intended? Are the courts biased against men or women? Are public safety workers and friends of judges getting a break? Let's see the documents.

The Supreme Court's Commission on Access, Preservation and Sealing of Court Records meets Thursday morning to discuss public access and other issues related to temporary protection orders. Officials should use that meeting to clarify that the public's business must be conducted in public -- and make sure the army of bureaucrats gets the message.