By McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern
FRANKFORT — Public agencies would be allowed to require photo IDs from Kentucky residents who request public records under a bill that received a House committee’s approval. A police chief said the measure would help his department weed out requests submitted by online bots.
House Bill 567 from Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, would change the state’s open records laws to allow a public agency’s records custodian to ask for a government-issued photo ID, like a driver’s license, to prove a records requestor’s residency. The General Assembly changed state law in 2021 to allow only Kentucky residents to request public records of agencies in Kentucky, with some exceptions for news organizations.
According to the Kentucky Open Records Act, a public agency can include state and local government officials, school districts and any organization that gets at least 25% of its funding from the state
Flannery told the House State Government Committee Thursday morning that the bill is a solution to local governments being “bombarded with AI chatbots” and other technology on open records requests, as a box can be checked claiming Kentucky residency “when there’s really no proof.”
“It would set up a system where they have to show proof that they do fall under the current requirement that they are a resident of the commonwealth to address that issue,” Flannery said.
HB 567 also changes the definition of a resident of the commonwealth to include a business entity with a physical location in Kentucky, rather than just having to be registered with the secretary of state.
“Trying to follow the spirit of the law in the Open Records (Act) is something that I feel is something I’m duly responsible for,” said Lawrenceburg Police Chief Bryan Taylor to the committee. However, he added that it can be “burdensome” to respond to requests because Lawrenceberg has a part-time city attorney and the chief has tried to verify resident addresses by going to them, but some have turned out to be empty lots.
“It costs the city a great expense, not only for me but for the city attorney, who’s also trying to vet these individuals as well,” Taylor said.
Gracie Kelly, the director of government affairs for the Kentucky League of Cities, said Tennessee has a proof of identification requirement in its open records law. KLC represents more than 370 cities and municipal agencies.
“The only new burden is now you have to show proof of residency,” Kelly said.
The Kentucky Open Government Coalition submitted a letter in opposition to the bill to the committee ahead of the meeting. Written by the coalition’s Co-Director Amye Bensenhaver, the letter pointed to Tennessee’s requirement. An open government coalition there argued that removing the requirement for public records requestors to show a driver’s license would reduce work for government employees, aid residents who do not want to mail or email a copy of their license because of privacy concerns, reduce the need for a government entity to handle personal information and more.
“While we anticipate threats to the open records and open meetings laws of equal or greater seriousness in the upcoming session, we are not prepared to yield to the proposal for an additional requirement on open records requesters, not to mention agency records custodians, when there is no evidence that the requirement enhances agency efficiency or advances the public’s right of access,” Bensenhaver wrote. “The experience of the handful of neighboring states that impose a residency requirement suggests otherwise.”
Rep. DJ Johnson, R-Owensboro, said that lawmakers will have to spend a lot of their time in the future on legislation that keeps up with changing technology.
“We want to maintain transparency as much as we can, but we also don’t want abuses of the system, which I think AI opens that door far more than we would like,” he said.
All Republican lawmakers on the committee voted yes, except Rep. Savannah Maddox, of Dry Ridge, who passed. Democratic Reps. Anne Gay Donworth, of Lexington, and Al Gentry, of Louisville, also passed.
Frankfort Democrat Rep. Erika Hancock was the only lawmaker to vote against the bill. She said that she understands the issue of bot requests, but “we have to make sure that we have safeguards for the legitimate requests.” She said some Kentuckians will not want to put their personal IDs online, and that could hinder access to public records when a requester would have to travel across the state to present ID.
Asked about Hancock’s concern after the meeting, Flannery told the Lantern that he could understand someone’s hesitancy to show their ID electronically, but “they’re not sending this to a private person.”
“You’re showing your government ID to the government,” he said. “I understand her point but it’s not something that I think really makes a difference on that.”
This story was originally published by Kentucky Lantern.
McKenna Horsley covers state politics for the Kentucky Lantern. She previously worked for newspapers in Huntington, West Virginia, and Frankfort, Kentucky. She is from northeastern Kentucky.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
