Kirkland sues over Web site listing officers' personal details
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Wading into the murky legalities of free-speech rights on the Internet, the city of Kirkland has filed a lawsuit against the creators of a Web site that lists the home addresses, phone numbers, salaries and, in some cases, Social Security numbers of police officers in that city.
The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court last week, names as the primary defendant Bill Sheehan, the Bothell network engineer who provides the server space for the Web site. The site lists personal information on police officers in 15 other jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, legal advisers with several local law-enforcement agencies - including the King County Sheriff's Office and the Seattle and Bellevue police departments - are meeting to consider ways, including drafting legislation, to increase privacy protection for their employees.
The Web site's authors say they are trying to hold police officers accountable and will soon update the site with links to police officers' criminal records and bankruptcy reports. The state attorney general's office has confirmed that the information currently on the Web site was obtained legally.
Kirkland wants the Web site shut down because of safety concerns, said City Manager David Ramsay. The release of home addresses and Social Security numbers is like "shouting fire in a crowded theater."
"It's an abuse of free speech," he said. "There is no public purpose served here."
A police officer's job, by nature, breeds enemies, and the Web site could be a resource for people seeking retribution, either physically or financially, he said.
The lawsuit also contends that the site damages the city's contractual agreements with its employees. It makes it harder for the city to attract and retain employees, Ramsay said.
Sheehan's attorney, Elena Garella, said the lawsuit is "laughable, 100 percent without legal merit."
She cited a 1998 decision by a federal judge that allowed Sheehan to continue posting home phone numbers, Social Security numbers and even maps showing directions to the homes of employees at a local credit agency.
"The First Amendment is renowned for protecting the speech we deplore as thoroughly as the speech we admire," wrote U.S. District Judge William Dwyer.
Sheehan's targets in that case were the employees of a private company.
"Here, we're talking about police officers, public officials who have far less protection under the First Amendment," Garella said.
There are exceptions under the law, Dwyer noted, for speech that is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to induce or produce such action."
But even a recent case involving three doctors killed after their names and addresses appeared on an anti-abortion Web site failed to meet that standard. Last week, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that a Web site branding specific abortion doctors as "baby butchers" was protected under the First Amendment.
Nonetheless, the legal advisers here hope to use the exception to draft so-called "accountability legislation" for Washington state.
"What is it that goes too far?" mused Leo Poort, legal adviser for the Seattle Police Department. "People have the right to say what they want to say. But what if there's damage, or if there are errors? What responsibility do the authors have then? It's a hard line to draw."
Poort and others are looking to adopt something akin to the "balance tests" used by federal judges when deciding on sensitive public disclosures. The benefits of releasing information are weighed against the potential dangers posed by the release.
No such test exists on the state level, although certain at-risk groups such as domestic-violence victims are afforded identity protection.
"I respect the First Amendment, and I respect the court rulings upholding it," said Kyle Aiken, legal adviser for the King County Sheriff's Office. "But I also represent the interests of the sheriff and his employees, and I want to protect their safety."
Michael Ko can be reached at 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com.