Post-Star Fails To Pickup, Pay For Pistol Permit Request
Posted on Friday, 4 of April , 2008 at 1:29 pm
EXCLUSIVE
By
After months of wrangling with the county for the release of the names and addresses of concealed carry permit holders, The Post-Star has apparently abandoned its quest.
Pamela Vogel,
She said the list provided names and addresses of 5,134 license holders, as requested in their revised Freedom of Information Law request of Feb. 7. The list had been redacted so as not to include names and addresses of those suspended or revoked due to transfer, relocation, death or felony arrest.
On March 21, the Warren County Court had ordered that one individual’s name and address, who had sought relief through an order to show cause and a purchased index number, not be included in the list prepared in response to the newspaper’s FOIL request.
Although Public Officers Law, Section 89, commonly known as the Freedom of Information Law, provides, in pertinent part, that “nothing in this article shall require the disclosure of the home address of an officer or employee, former officer or employee or of a retiree of a public employee’s retirement system, Ms. Vogel said there had not been a blanket request or approval to remove all police officer’s names.
The county clerk said as of Friday, The Post-Star had not responded to her notification that the list was available. The newspaper has not paid for the copies which had been produced for them at extensive taxpayer cost and time and “the list remains here”.
The daily newspaper began its efforts three months ago to get
On Jan. 9, Post-Star reporter Nick Reisman filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the county clerk’s office, seeking “any and all records or portions thereof pertaining a the list (sic) of pistol permit and firearm permit holders in Warren County, NY. I am requesting the list contain (sic) the full name and town of permit holders.
In February, The North Country Gazette learned of The Post-Star’s request and initial intent to publish the names of pistol permit holders on their website.
Although Post-Star editor Ken Tingley vigorously denied that the daily newspaper intended to make public the names of pistol permit holders, NCG filed its own FOIL request and found that Tingley and The Post-Star were being less than honest with the public.
The NCG article stirred a firestorm of protest from gun owners across the country who began firing off emails to the newspaper, some of whom indicated that they would be instituting a boycott of Post-Star advertisers and canceling their subscriptions to the paper. Law enforcement officials and county officials said they “absolutely did not support” the newspaper’s plan as it posed a potential threat to public safety.
On Feb. 22, Saratoga County clerk Kathleen Marchione provided Reisman with a computer disc containing the names of that county’s pistol permit holders but without their corresponding towns.
Penal Law Section 400, the basic firearms licensing statute in
The
After receiving The Post-Star’s initial request, Vogel had acknowledged it on Jan. 11, saying that “delivery of the records is anticipated to be granted within 20 business days and will however not be able to be produced in electronic format”. She told Reisman that “non-public information will need to be redacted from the record thus requiring this additional time to process”.
But by email of Jan. 16, Reisman and The Post-Star continued to press for the county to produce what they wanted in electronic format. While Reisman said that he “appreciate(d) the privacy issues involved”, he wanted to know what information was being redacted from the record.
According to an email sent Jan. 23 by the county clerk to Reisman, Vogel said she would be providing an amended version as had been discussed in a meeting with Warren County Court Judge John Hall, the number of license holders in each zip code in
Reisman quickly responded that he wasn’t content with receiving just numbers of permit holders, The Post-Star wanted names and for the first time, on Jan. 23, Reisman stated that it was the newspaper’s intent to publish a database of the permit holders.
“We’re still interested in compiling the names of pistol owners. The way the database is being set up will only allow for a search on a specific name. So, if we were to type in ‘Nick Reisman’ or ‘Pam Vogel’ the relevant information would show”.
Reisman told Vogel that “the database will not be structured as a list of names. If you have any other questions as to how this will be compiled, our editor, Ken Tingley, is writing a column on the issue for this Sunday’s newspaper”.
The county clerk responded to Reisman on Jan. 23, telling him that “I find no reason for your office to compile a list of pistol owners. If all you wish is to check a name here or there in a somewhat random fashion, as you have illustrated in your email. It is important to note that you would not know if the name is linked to a recent revocation, death or surrender as that information would not be available to you. Should there be a need for a check of a particular name, as illustrated, then that request can be directed to this office (Pistol Permits) which is the custodian of the records. We would be the primary source”.
Vogel continued, saying that “I also do not see how a specific, selected name pulled from a compiled listing by someone other than the custodial agency is a benefit for a story on pistol permit and safety. There is much information available on obtaining the permit, procedures and of course Penal Law Article 400….excellent learning tools for you and members of the public. I trust that all of that information will help you in your article. I look forward to finding out more about the intent of this article from Mr. Tingley’s column on Sunday”.
But Tingley’s column never materialized. The first The Post-Star and Tingley made the issue public was on Feb. 4 with his “denial” letter after the first North Country Gazette article informing the public of the Post-Star’s plan.
On Friday, Jan. 25, Vogel asked Tingley and Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star to meet with the newspaper’s editorial board as she had “concerns regarding the information and its use as well as ability to provide without other compromise”.
In his response on Monday, Jan. 28, Tingley skirted Vogel’s request to meet with the editorial board and in a terse email, began backing away from their plans to publish a database on their website, telling Vogel that “The Post-Star regular (sic) files FOIL requests when it is researching possible stories. Sometimes we use the information, sometimes we don’t. At this juncture, it would really be quite premature to discuss a story that is still being reported. Nick has been working on a gun safety story and right now we have no plans to use the pistol permit information for anything other than research”.
Days later, in early February, The North Country Gazette took the controversy public. Although Reisman had already stated the newspaper’s intent to publish a database in his emails to Vogel and had reportedly told several callers to the newspaper the same thing, after NCG’s article appeared, Tingley was on the forum of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, stating that “as editor of The Post-Star I can assure you there is no intent to publish the names and towns of gun permit holders. It simply is not true”.
The public record spoke for itself and the email exchange between the county clerk’s office and The Post-Star contradicted Tingley. Public records document The Post-Stars originalintent to publish the database, that is until their plan was made public by The North Country Gazette and was met with outrage and protests from across the country, especially from gun owners.
The Post-Star has been silent publicly on the issue of pistol permits since NCG’s last article on the subject on Feb. 7.
See The North Country Gazette’s previous articles and commentary on the subject:
Some Pistol Permit Data Exempted From Disclosure
Saratoga County Gives Post-Star Pistol Permit Holders
Post-Star Pistol Permit Propaganda
Post-Star Poo Poos Pistol Permit Publishing
Post-Star, Pistol Permits And Public Safety 4-4-08
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Category: Adirondacks, Constitution, Consumers, Courts, Crime, Government, Media, New York State, Police, Warren County
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