Tapes of 911 calls usually easy to access

RALEIGH — While a Wake County judge has sealed 911 emergency tapes related to the violent death of a State Board of Education member, the executive director of the N.C. Press Association says that such secrecy is uncommon.

“This kind of fight is not as frequent as people think,” Beth Grace, the association’s executive director, said.

Grace noted that in the early days, when emergency centers first started recording 911 calls, newspapers and other media outlets ran into more stumbling blocks.

She notes that North Carolina law makes such recordings a public record.

“Generally, 911 calls are public,” Grace said. However, the law allows police and emergency centers to redact certain identifying information from the recordings, such as the names, addresses, phone numbers and other identifying information of the caller, the victim or witnesses.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Don Stevens has granted a state’s motion to seal the 911 recordings and other information regarding the death of Kathy Taft, a member of the State Board of Education.

A number of media outlets are trying to get that order overturned.

Taft died Tuesday following a west Raleigh attack over the weekend. Police are treating the death as a homicide.

Grace said that preventing the release of such information can be frustrating, not just for members of the press, but for people living in the neighborhood where the crime occurred.

“I want to know what the threat is in my neighborhood,” Grace said. “The public has a right to know if they’re in danger.”

Grace said that most cases don’t involve disputes similar to the one surrounding the 911 call in Wake County. Most newspapers get along well with local emergency officials and are able to get 911 calls, she said.

“Newspaper people live in the community that they serve,” Grace said. “They get along well with local officials because they are reasonable people.”

A handful of states keep 911 calls confidential. Pam Greenberg of the National Conference of State Legislatures, reports that five states — Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wyoming — keep 911 recordings confidential. Some other states, such as Georgia, Maine, Minnesota and South Dakota, place restrictions on releasing 911 call recordings if they would reveal the name, address or phone number of the person placing the call.

Greenberg noted that legislators in at least four states — Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin — have introduced bills this year dealing with 911 call recordings. Also, a Florida House committee recently considered a bill placing restrictions on such calls, she said.

Recently, the Associated Press reported that efforts in some states to ban the release of 911 recordings at times originate with crime victims’ families. One family member from Florida said that hearing a recording on a national TV show was “devastating to me.”

Open-government advocates, however, argue that prohibiting the release of recordings takes away a valuable tool in evaluating the performance of police and emergency centers. One example notes that a 911 operator fell asleep after answering a call. Advocates also say that such recordings can help vindicate operators accused of mishandling calls.

Grace said she believes North Carolina’s law works well and she’s heard of no effort to change the state’s public records law regarding 911 calls. 

Barry Smith can be reached at barrysmith@freedom.com.