Beckon v. Emery

This is an appeal from an order of the Dane county circuit court denying the appellant's application for a writ of mandamus.
It appears that petitioner was issued a traffic citation by patrolman Robert Peterson on July 16, 1966. His attorney went
to the police department and asked to inspect the citation issued Beckon and, in addition, all other citations issued by the
same policeman for the one-year period immediately preceding the issuance of the citation to Beckon. The request to inspect
the citations was refused by the chief of police or by one of his employees. No reason was given by the police chief for such
refusal. At the hearing the assistant city attorney stated that the reports were "confidential" and, in the brief filed herein,
the attorney for the respondent stated that the police chief declined to turn over the citations because "he felt it would
not be in the public interest." Following the refusal of the chief of police, the appellant sought a writ of mandamus to compel
the production of the citations. The Dane county court issued the writ to compel the production of the documents, but subsequently
limited its order to permit only the inspection of the face of the citation, thus excluding from the respondent's scrutiny
the portion of the officer's report in which he records his own recollections of the occurrence or any other information which
he deems pertinent to the ordinance violation. Petitioner then brought his petition in the circuit court seeking mandamus
to compel the chief of police to permit inspection of all the material on the citation, including the patrolman's observations.
The petition was denied on the basis that the writ of mandamus was available only to enforce a clear legal right. The appeal
is from the order denying the petition for the writ. The petitioner relies upon sec. 18.01 (1) and (2), Stats., which provide: