Balancing safety with your rights

A decision Brent Rinehart labeled as an attempt to increase openness in government backfired Friday when he was asked to remove a document showing a floor plan of the county jail from his Web site.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said in an e-mail that the county commissioner caused a "security breach” by making the jail floor plan available online and asked that the document be immediately removed from Rinehart's District 2 Web site.

"It's an officer safety issue, as well as safety for the citizens,” said Sheriff John Whetsel, who learned of the posting Friday from a state jail inspector. "If we put detailed plans up on the Internet to guide people in assisting escapes or directing escapes, then we put our public at risk and we put our deputies and detention officers at high risk.”

Whetsel contacted Prater after the jail inspector raised concern.

Jail floor plan's a public record

Rinehart said he saw no problem posting the document because it is a public record.

Prater said he was addressing a security concern and wasn't questioning Rinehart's legal right to post the document.

"This was not an open records issue,” Prater said. "Based upon recent events, including the recent near-successful jail break, it raised immediate concerns in my mind.

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