Arkansas State Police and Bill Sadler

Summary

The court affirmed an order requiring the Arkansas State Police to provide unredacted accident reports, holding that the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act does not prohibit disclosure of information contained in those reports under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. It reasoned that an accident report is not a federally defined motor-vehicle record and that the statutory exclusion for information on vehicular accidents encompasses the information in the reports. Justice Baker, dissenting and joined by Justice Goodson, would have held that names, addresses, telephone numbers, and other identifying information obtained from the motor-vehicle database remain protected personal information under the federal statute.