Blogger Russ Racop, a frequent and persistent critic of Little Rock police, collected 419 photographs on Friday from the department with the promise of 73 more on Monday.
The total — 490 — is one picture of every officer who does not work in an undercover capacity.
Police turned over the pictures at court order after Racop, acting as his own lawyer, faced off with city attorneys before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that Racop filed earlier this month.
“Transparency rules,” Racop said. “We have the best FOI in the country. Griffen does not play with the law.”
Griffen sided with Racop’s argument that the police pictures, aside from photos of undercover officers, are public records that must be disclosed. The judge ordered them turned over to the blogger by 4 p.m.
Police Lt. Michael Ford, the department’s spokesman, said the city was complying with the ruling and would not appeal the order.
After a hearing that included testimony from Ford, police Sgt. J.B. Stephens, Racop and Ean Bordeaux, a Racop associate who also runs a blog that has been critical of police, the judge found that the city had wrongly withheld the pictures.
The city had misapplied a part of the law that shields the pictures of officers actively working undercover from public disclosure, the judge said.
“The court will not allow the undercover exemption … to swallow the public records rule — a rule that is to be liberally construed,” Griffen wrote, quoting a portion of the open-records statute itself.
Racop never asked for photographs of undercover officers, the judge stated. Griffen also pointed out that the department regularly releases photographs of its officers.
“The photographs requested by the plaintiff do not include a request for undercover officers. The court has received no evidence that the request made in this matter is anything other than a public record,” Griffen’s two-page order states. “The court notes that the Little Rock Police Department in its course of business routinely publishes photographs of entire classes of officer graduates.”
Racop was reached by phone as he was collecting the two CDs containing the pictures. He said police officials realized late in the day that not all of the photos were immediately available but had promised to provide him with the remaining 73, who are recent recruits, on Monday.
Racop is the author of several blogs, Bad City of Little Rock, Bad Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control, Bad Arkansas Department of Human Services and Bad Attorneys in Arkansas.
Racop, who says he is running for the Little Rock City Council, frequently posts biting criticism and commentary that he illustrates with photographs that are altered to illustrate his point. His posts also regularly include documents that he’s obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to support his accusations.
Now that he has the photos, Racop said he intends to use them, in part, to supplement his growing collection of police disciplinary reports, firings and resignations. Having the photographs on hand will also give him a jump on media outlets when Little Rock officers are in the news, he said.
He said he’s beginning to compile a “liars list” of police officers — a “present” to defense attorneys — that will showcase officers who have been found to be dishonest but who are still working. A 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brady v. Maryland, requires prosecutors to disclose to defendants if a police officer has any kind of official record for lying.
Racop said he also wants to use the pictures to somewhat alter the focus of his blogs by regularly highlighting the good work done by officers.
Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner did not attend the hearing despite being the defendant in the lawsuit. City lawyers said he was out of town on a family vacation.
Racop sued after twice requesting the photographs in April, citing the Freedom of Information Act. City Attorney Tom Carpenter turned him down, citing a 2014 attorney general opinion that describes undercover officers’ photographs as personnel records that are exempt from the state’s open records laws.
In January 2017, police cited the undercover exemption when the department refused to release the identity of an on-duty officer driving a marked police car who struck and fatally injured a pedestrian crossing Baseline Road. Rebecca Badenhop, 28, of Mabelvale died from her injuries two days later.
Court records subsequently show the officer to have been Oscar Gomez.
Badenhop’s two children in Camden received a $25,000 insurance settlement in April. Braileigh McClellan and Michael Badenhop collected $16,250 after legal costs.
Information for this article was contributed by Ginny Monk of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.