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CG asked to explain why it withholds names

Professional staff from the House subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard is asking the service to explain its new practice of withholding the names of people it rescues.

Congressional and Coast Guard sources confirmed that two staff members from the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee will meet with service attorneys to discuss the policy, which was announced on Aug. 24.

Under the new policy, the Coast Guard will release the names of people it rescues only while a search-and-rescue operation is “open and active.” The information will not be releasable once the case is closed and entered into the service’s law enforcement information database.

The announcement has generated objections from media outlets and free press advocates, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

“This information presumes to be public, and this policy flips that presumption on its head,” said Loren Cochran, an attorney for the Reporters Committee.

Editors at the Mobile, Ala. Press-Register called the policy “unfortunate.”

“If the names of the people rescued are not available, members of the news media and the public have no way to check on the Coast Guard’s performance in rescues. ... Likewise, when the job is well done, the public deserves to know that, too. People who owe their lives to the Coast Guard may want to tell the important stories of their rescuers’ heroism,” editors wrote in a Sept. 12 opinion piece.

Coast Guard attorneys contend that the new policy follows the letter of the law and allows the release of information to the “maximum extent of the law.”

“The Privacy Act requires additional screening before releasing the names of individuals that are not already in the public domain; accordingly, once a search-and-rescue case is closed the Coast Guard will process requests for names of individuals under [the Freedom of Information Act],” Andrew Turner, the service’s chief of general law, said Wednesday.

In general, the Coast Guard believes names are protected under a FOIA exemption that prohibits disclosures that “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy.”

“All such requests will be answered as quickly as possible and the Coast Guard will release as much information as the law permits under the circumstances,” Turner said.

The policy clarification caps a two-year debate within the service that followed a 2005 request from The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer for the names of people rescued on the ice that year and in previous winters.

The newspaper was trying to determine whether the Coast Guard spent taxpayer funds rescuing “repeat offenders.”

The Coast Guard did not comply with the request, and The Plain Dealer did not pursue legal action for the names. But following the request, the Coast Guard’s legal arm issued an opinion saying all names should be withheld from press releases.

On Feb. 24, 2006, then-Judge Advocate General Rear Adm. John Crowley said the Coast Guard should only release a name if “disclosure is reasonably expected to aid a search-and-rescue case.” In that memo, Crowley cited court cases he said uphold the Coast Guard’s argument for protecting people: “If privacy interests outweigh the public interest, even modestly, the requested information must be withheld,” Crowley wrote.

The Aug. 24 message appears to be a compromise of Crowley’s order.

After reviewing past press releases generated by individual Coast Guard districts, Cochran said adherence to the new practice is spotty and he questioned the service’s motives for the change.

“It costs $4,400 an hour to run a helicopter during a search and rescue. If you are going out to rescue someone one or two or four times because they are not accurately tracking the weather forecast, perhaps they should be held accountable,” Cochran said. “The Coast Guard appears to disclose this information when it fits their own purpose.”