Businesses or other for-profit agencies will no longer be able to use county public records to make money.
The Johnson County Commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance that would prohibit the use of public records by commercial entities.
Preparing public records, such as information about people who have been arrested and booked into the Johnson County jail, takes considerable taxpayer money, the time of county workers and county resources to prepare the materials, according to the ordinance. Â
The ordinance was prepared after a data-seeking company asked for information regarding who was in the Johnson County jail and what their charges were with the purpose of later selling that data. A county employee noted that preparing the information takes a lot of time, said Sarah Haefner, assistant county attorney.
Commercial purpose is defined as a company seeking the public information to sell, advertise or solicit the purchase of merchandise, goods, or services or sell, loan, give away or otherwise deliver the information to any person for those purposes, according to the ordinance.
The ordinance would not apply to the media, non-profit organizations or academia.
An example of a request that would now be subject to the ordinance would be a business requesting public information for the purpose of soliciting business from Johnson County residents, Haefner said.
County employees would not assume that any business that requests public records would be using the data for commercial purposes, but the ordinance would allow county employees to deny future requests from the business if it was found using the information for commercial purposes, Haefner said.
Providing people with complete information is essential to the government and the county is making every effort to comply with the Indiana Access to Public Records act, according to language in the ordinance.Â
Luke Britt, the Indiana Public Access Counselor, reviewed and approved of the ordinance.
State law allows local governments to pass ordinances that would prohibit public records being used commercially, Britt said.
The Office of the Indiana Public Access Counselor gives advice and assistance concerning Indiana’s public access laws to the public and government officials and employees.
