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David Stanley Ford

Balancing safety with your rights
Balancing safety with your rights

By John Estus    Comments Comment on this article6
Published: September 8, 2007

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.

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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.”

A group of inmates took detention officers hostage and nearly escaped from the jail May 8.

In the e-mail, sent Friday to county commissioners and the county's information technology director, Prater said the document's presence on the Internet "poses an immediate threat.”

Where the plan came from

County staff eventually removed the floor plan, which was included in a comprehensive jail study posted on the District 2 Web site.

Documents prepared by third parties and delivered to government agencies become public records, according to the state Open Records Act. The Facility Group study was also presented during jail task force meetings, which were conducted under state open meetings laws.

"It's kind of strange,” Rinehart said. "It was presented in an open meeting, and it was presented to the board and accepted as a document by the Board of County Commissioners.”

The study including the jail floor plan was put online last week when Rinehart launched a redesign of the District 2 Web site. In a news release, he said the new design "raises the standard of government transparency” and included open records that have "never before been distributed to the public.”

The site includes records on the budget, jail and programs Rinehart has proposed.

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David Stanley Ford





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When, pray tell, is this buffoon up for re-election? I would dearly love anyone from his district to please tell us what they could have possibly seen in this guy to elect him in the first place. I have a sneaking suspicion that Rinehart's unrelenting, unabashed and unwarrented anti-gay bashing against Roth somehow seemed palatable to his constiguients. That, in and of itself is frightning. This guy has been a disaster from the start and he continues to peddle his myopic morality to those who are as phobic as he is and use his position to vindictively assault anyone who doesn't share his ignorance. Look for Brent Rinehart, coming to a public restroom in an airport near you.
Cale, oklahoma city - Sep 8, 2007 at 11:09 pm
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Ignore Cale
Is Rinehart out of his mind?!? What a total disregard for the safety of our detention officers, deputies & police officers AND our citizens! Just a curious question here... what was Rinehart's motivation for posting THIS 'public record' versus EVERY or ANY other 'public record'? Hmmm?
Michael, Oklahoma City - Sep 8, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Kevin,of Edmond, these types of records now reside in a gray area of the open records debate. This was all changed by 9/11, the Patriot Act & the Dept of Homeland Seurity. There are many floor plans & site maps of a communitiy's infrastucture that are now barred (or will be barred) from issuance to the public. For instance most city water treatment facilities & chemical manufacturers do not release maps of their facilities, in order to reduce the potential of terrorist attacks. Whether you agree or disagree, many previously public documents are no longer accessible due to the threat of terrorism and the consequences of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita. Just ask someone in corporate America how much time, money & effort they are investing to answer new security requirements due to presidential directives related to homeland security.
Concerned, Central Oklahoma - Sep 8, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Rinehart is an idiot.
Ronald, Oklahoma City - Sep 8, 2007 at 10:51 am
Margaret, I disagree. Legally, this is an open record. Making it available to the public is really no big deal. If someone wanted the document for nefarious purposes, they could just as easily make an Oklahoma Open Records Act request to which the County would have to respond per the statute. This is as much a stunt on Rinehart's part as it is a stunt on the OK County Democrats' part to try and embarrass Rinehart over anything they possibly can. In this case, you should note that county Democrats are the ones trotting to the media. Were this a serious problem, they could have (and probably should have) handled it behind closed doors. But these guys and gals want to make political power plays out of even the most pathetic and innocuous stuff. To the Oklahoma County government: Don't you have roads to build and prisoners to house? Get back to work!
Kevin, Oklahoma City - Sep 8, 2007 at 10:50 am
Another stunt by Brent Rinehart. Does the man ever get enough attention?
Margaret, Holdenville - Sep 8, 2007 at 7:39 am

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