More Small County Political Games

Yesterday, November 20, 2009, I went to the Iron
County Sheriff's office to request copies of some
police reports that I need to complete a story I
am doing for this publication.

I was told that I had to make an FOIA request for
all police reports at the prosecutor's office.

Each entity, the sheriff and the prosecutor, are
independently elected. Their offices and budgets
are separate and independent. The sheriff is
responsible for his own FOIA requests. Shifting
the responsibility to the prosecutor's office
is a small county political game that we, the
public, have to put up with in Iron County. In
addition, in most jurisdictions I've been in
in other states, a simple verbal request is all
that is required in order to get police reports.

What makes Iron County so special?

Bill Vajk