Agency reverses Glacier policy on information
Names, ages, hometowns of visitors injured in the park will be released
The National Park Service has issued an interim policy that effectively reverses Glacier National Park's recently announced ban on releasing the names, ages and hometowns of people who are hurt, killed or rescued in the park.
"The NPS takes its responsibility to protect personal privacy of its visitors and employees very seriously," the agency said in a press release Tuesday. "At the same time, the importance of providing appropriate, legal and adequate information to the news media and general public in a timely and consistent manner is critical."
The agency "recognizes the public's legal rights to obtain information about the government operations and activities," according to the release.
The new nationwide policy restores the manner in which Glacier Park officials have handled incidents for years: Names, ages and hometowns of people who get hurt or rescued in the park will be released, and similar information for fatalities will be delayed until relatives have been notified.
"It's similar to what had been done before," said Melissa Wilson, Glacier's public affairs officer.
"I'm happy that there is a consistent policy, and I'm happy that it's a written policy I can follow," she said.
The Inter Lake strongly objected to Glacier's policy, which was based on a ruling from a Department of Interior Freedom of Information Act appeals officer last fall.
A story about the issue reported that the service lacked a uniform policy for national parks across the country. As a result, parks had varying restrictions on the release of incident information.
Glacier adopted one of the most restrictive policies.
Uncertainty about what information could be released became apparent in Glacier last summer, after a father and daughter were mauled by a grizzly bear on the Grinnell Glacier trail. The park would not release their names, ages or hometowns. That prompted a Freedom of Information Act request from the Daily Inter Lake for records about the incident.
At about the same time, The Salt Lake Tribune was appealing the response it got to a FOIA request, in which names and other identifying characteristics were blacked out in records provided to the newspaper. An appeals officer in Washington, D.C., supported the decision to redact the information.
And that led to Glacier's policy, along with more restrictive policies in other national parks, including Yellowstone.
The new policy includes information that cannot be released, which is consistent with past practice in Glacier. Nonreleasable information includes the names of fatally or seriously injured victims whose relatives have not been notified; names of juveniles charged with criminal offenses; names of sexual assault victims; names of people or witnesses who may become victims of crimes or retaliation; information about incidents in which criminal action is under investigation; investigation information that goes beyond general incident reporting; explicit details, including graphic images of extreme injuries or brutal fatalities; home addresses, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers.
The policy was approved by Steve Martin, the National Park Service deputy director of operations.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com