While many tax-payers in Kenosha County are fighting to increase transparency in local government especially with the police, at least one local leader is pushing for the opposite. Kenosha County Board Supervisor Jeff Gentz recently sponsored an ordinance change that would dramatically change the public records retention policy for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of records. Joint Services is an intergovernmental agency that keeps and maintains records for Kenosha Police and the Kenosha Sheriff’s departments. Under this new change, if passed, would allow police to permanently destroy hundreds of thousands of incident reports, that officers and dispatchers generate that detail what happens when someone calls 9-1-1 or the non-emergency number. If passed, this law would allow KPD and KSD to destroy ANY incident reports before today’s date in 2010. Gentz will likely cite the cost of maintaining these records as an excuse, but can you really put a price tag on government transparency?
