BANGOR — The Bangor Daily News has filed a lawsuit against the Maine State Police to force it to unredact discipline records detailing officer misconduct.

The newspaper reports that last spring, written disciplinary decisions against state troopers, which are public under Maine law, were requested.

Seven months later, the publication received 53 pages of records, but details regarding officer misconduct were obscured and, in some cases, redacted.

State police did not redact general descriptions of officer’s misconduct in instances where the language used is too vague to discern what happened, such as describing a sergeant’s misconduct as a “violation of code of conduct and chain of command policy.”

On another page, state police redacted several lines that appeared to describe in detail what the sergeant did.

State police staff attorney Christopher Parr acknowledged that the agency redacted details of misconduct, and unredacted two paragraphs after Bangor Daily News contested the redactions on Jan. 7. The paragraphs provided an employee assistance program phone number.

Parr declined to unredact more.

In an email, Parr wrote that “certain information contained in the documents may be designated confidential by law,”

Parr declined to provide specific justification for each redaction and wrote that “doing so would, in effect, disclose the very types of information those provisions are intended to protect.”

« Previous

Rockland man charged with making false marine distress call

Next »

UMaine System won’t require COVID-19 vaccines for students or staff