Protecting Public Safety While Honoring Public Interest

This week the House of Representatives considered and moved forward HB 256 sponsored by Representative Caleb Jones (R-50).  One of the chief concerns the legislature has is public safety.  In fact, it is the government’s primary responsibility to facilitate the sanctity of its citizens’ rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  With this in mind, the House extended the law which protects certain government plans from the public domain so long as they relate to public safety.  Specifically, disaster response plans that are developed in the event of terrorist activities and utilized by law enforcement agencies, public health and public safety officials will not be accessible.  Many had concerns that school disaster response plans would be publicly available, meaning that those wishing our children harm might also have access to how first responders, police, and other safety officials would handle a crisis – allowing the criminal more time to do harm or plan escape.

 

Let me be clear, I strongly support the public’s interest in accountability in government.  In an effort to ensure that government officials could not tamper with the intent of the law in order to hide activities or purchases that would erode the public’s trust, I also supported amendments that clarified that certain purchases and activities can explicitly be obtained through information requests from the public.  This issue is quite complex, and the line between public safety and public information is sometimes a hard one to define.  I feel confident that we have acted in the best interest of Missouri’s citizens.