Four media organizations, including the Missouri Broadcasters Association and Missouri Press Association, have filed a lawsuit against the Missouri State Highway Patrol alleging the patrol's redacted crash reports violate Missouri's open records law.
The MBA and MPA, alongside Gray Media and Warden Publishing Company Managing Editor Roxie Murphy, are asking the Highway Patrol to restore full public access to crash records.
The MBA and MPA are news membership organizations that represent hundreds of local media organizations across the state. KOMU 8 News is a member of the MBA. Gray Media is a television ownership group that owns multiple stations in Missouri, and Warden Publishing Company owns several local newspapers in the state.
In a petition filed on Friday, the organizations allege that the Highway Patrol's withholding of information in crash reports violates the Missouri Sunshine Law.
The petition states that beginning in 2024, the patrol has redacted names, addresses, phone numbers and other identifiable information in crash reports received through Sunshine Law requests.
The Highway Patrol began redacting personal information in online crash reports on Nov. 1, 2024, citing concerns that making that information public could lead scammers to target family members of victims. KOMU 8 News reported at the time that the Highway Patrol said the change would only apply to online preliminary crash reports.
Before 2024, the Highway Patrol posted crash reports with identifiable information, stating on its website that all information in reports is considered an "open record" that must be made publicly available, according to a statement from MPA and MBA.
“People have been calling our member stations upset that they didn’t know that their neighbors or prominent community members were in a crash,” Chad Mahoney, president and CEO of the Missouri Broadcasters Association, said.
The petition outlined several incidents in 2026 of news outlets submitting a Sunshine Law request for unredacted reports and allegedly being denied that information.
In the petition, the news organizations are asking for restored access to unredacted crash reports, between $1,000 and $5,000 awarded to each plaintiff, their attorneys' fees and all other relief they may be entitled to.
