Missouri news organizations are asking a Cole County judge to restore access to names and other information removed from traffic and boating crash reports, bringing the Highway Patrol’s privacy policy into a new open-records challenge. The petition was electronically filed October 16, and the Missouri Broadcasters Association announced the case Monday. The filing establishes the plaintiffs’ claims, not a court finding that the agency broke the law.
The plaintiffs include the Missouri Press Association, Missouri Broadcasters Association, Gray Local Media, Warden Publishing Company and managing editor Roxie Murphy. Their announcement argues that identifying people involved in crashes helps communities obtain accurate information and journalists verify deaths and investigate road safety. KQ2 reported that the suit seeks complete reports, restored public online access, civil penalties and attorney fees.
Two forms of access are disputed
The petition challenges both the information visible in the online database and redactions in responses to individual Sunshine Law requests. It describes requests made during 2026, including Murphy’s effort to identify two people killed in a Gasconade County crash. It also alleges that requests by broadcasters and the press association produced reports with personal information removed. These examples are presented by the plaintiffs and have not been independently adjudicated in the materials reviewed.
The Highway Patrol set out its rationale in a November 1, 2024, news release. It said scammers were targeting crash victims or their associates and may have used public databases to appear credible. Names would disappear from preliminary online traffic, boating and drowning reports, while age, injury type, city and state and other information would remain available.
That policy statement also said people with a legal right to the information could obtain it through the agency’s Public Records Center and cited the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. It is the agency’s published explanation for the policy, not a newly filed answer to this lawsuit. The plaintiffs’ account disputes the legality of withholding information in the requests at issue.
The statutory distinction matters
Missouri’s Section 610.100 defines incident reports to include immediate facts, the location and the victim’s name, and generally makes incident reports open. The same section also provides for closing particular information when disclosure poses specified safety or investigative risks. Those provisions make the scope and legal basis of redactions important; the law is not a blanket instruction to disclose every detail of every police file.
The revisor’s statutory annotation also notes a 2005 appellate decision allowing redaction of addresses, telephone numbers, license-plate numbers and parts of birth dates from vehicle incident reports. The plaintiffs’ demand for fully unredacted reports is therefore a request for judicial relief, not an established entitlement to every field.
The requested relief would affect both requesters seeking specific records and anyone using the statewide online database. For now, the significant development is the challenge itself, rather than an order restoring access.
