Q: Are police reports public record for city employees to take home.
Long story short, I recently received a ticket for drug paraphernalia for weed. I live in a small town and my ex step mom is the judges clerk so when I called to make an appointment to talk to the judge about keeping it off my record, she’s the one who answered and made the appointment. I just found out she printed out the police report and took it home to show people. Is that legal?
A:
It depends on your definition of Police Report. Many people use that term to refer to the officer's affidavit that explains why there is probable cause to support a warrant, a warrantless arrest, or the issuance of a citation. That sort of affidavit is a public record available to anyone.
There is another type of report generated by law enforcement called an Offense Report. It is technically also a public record but there is an exception for records involved in a current case that allows it to be withheld (or at least redacted) while the case is pending. Around here, law enforcement does usually exercise their option to withhold, but they might not in the jurisdiction where you live. So the general public and the judge's office would not typically have access to a copy of the full offense report but they could under some circumstances... for example if it were filed as an exhibit attached to a motion. Wherever you are in Texas, the prosecutor and defense attorney definitely have access to the full offense report.
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