news-record.com

A group of Greensboro residents is asking the city to make public a confidential investigative report on the police department leaked to the News & Record this year.

Thirteen people were listed as making the request under the state's public-records laws on the Web site of www.Greensboro101.com, a blog aggregator.

The request was being sent to the city by certified mail Wednesday.

Roch Smith Jr., one of the residents, said he had heard rumor and speculation about the report, including contentions by some City Council members that its release violated state law. A way to put the matter to rest, he said, is to determine whether the report is a public record.

Lewis Pitts, an attorney and another resident requesting the report, said he believed the public interest outweighs any exception in state law that shields personnel information from being released.

"The public has to know what's going on in order to hold (city leaders) accountable," he said.

Based on the information made public about the report, Smith said, he believes releasing the report is in the public's interest. The report on former police Chief David Wray's administration alleged harsher treatment for black officers and an atmosphere of intimidation .

Eight of nine council members took and said they passed polygraph exams last week, their effort to prove they weren't the source of the leak. Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small, accused by some on council as the source, did not take the polygraph nor sign an affidavit stating she didn't share the report with anyone. Bellamy-Small said she had no part in the leak.

The News & Record has published stories based on the report from Raleigh-based Risk Management Associates but has not made the full report public at the request of its source.

In January, city officials rejected a public-records request from the newspaper to provide the full report, stating it isn't a public record because it contains considerable personnel information about many city employees. The city attorney also told the News & Record then that the city wouldn't release an edited copy of the report without a court order.

City Attorney Linda Miles said Wednesday that the city's stance had not changed.

Smith said it was most likely that a lawsuit would be filed to attempt to obtain the report if the city's rejects the request. Pitts said it was too soon tell whether a suit would be brought. Both said they're interested in the reasons the city would give for not releasing the report.

Contact Eric Swensen at 373-7351 or eswensen@news-record.com