The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit today against the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for repeatedly breaking Missouri's government transparency laws. The legal action, filed in St. Louis City Circuit Court, targets the department, its records custodian, and the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners for stonewalling a property owner's legally mandated public records request. The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that the department violated the law, an order to produce all requested documents and refund illegal fees, and statutory civil penalties.
The case centers on John Thomas, a St. Louis property owner who requested police records after four patrol vehicles showed up at his short-term rental property in April following a false claim that the building was "condemned." Officers acknowledged before arriving that they'd checked police records and confirmed no condemnation notice existed. After the officers left without taking any action, Thomas submitted a Sunshine Law request to understand why police responded so heavily to a claim they knew was false. Missouri law requires government agencies to act on records requests no later than the end of the third business day after receiving them, and within 30 days, law enforcement must either produce the materials or file a court motion to redact portions. The St. Louis police did neither. After more than three months passed, a Goldwater attorney informed the department it was violating the law, but instead of providing the records, officials demanded Thomas pay an unauthorized fee of $183.77 before processing his request. Thomas paid under protest, and more than four months after his initial request, the department produced some—but not all—of the responsive records.
The lawsuit argues that the department and its custodian of records, who's held the position for over 35 years, are fully aware of their legal obligations. Earlier this year, the Goldwater Institute won a trial court case against the same department when a judge ruled it purposefully violated the Sunshine Law by withholding records from a local newspaper. That followed two Missouri Court of Appeals decisions finding the department committed "knowing" violations of the transparency law. The department also signed a consent judgment in another case admitting it had violated the same 30-day deadline provision that applies to Thomas's situation. According to the report, Missouri law gives any person whose property is involved in an incident an explicit right to receive "complete, unaltered and unedited" copies of police records to investigate potential civil claims or defenses.
The Goldwater Institute frames the case as part of a broader pattern where government agencies across Missouri and the nation routinely block access to public records, preventing citizens from protecting their rights or uncovering misconduct. The lawsuit aims to defend the rule of law and ensure law enforcement remains transparent and accountable to the people it serves. The report emphasizes that public institutions work for the people and must not be allowed to exercise state power while keeping the public in the dark about their operations. The litigation seeks to establish judicial oversight over a department that has demonstrated a pattern of ignoring transparency requirements despite repeated court findings against it.