Chris Hayes, an investigative reporter for a St. Louis Fox affiliate, was arrested Thursday and charged with disorderly conduct while attempting to cover a city meeting in nearby Kinloch, Missouri.
Mr. Hayes had planned to attend a hearing on the heels of a Wednesday news report in which he revealed that the Kinloch Police Department had neither registered nor insured its motor vehicles.
When the reporter arrived for Thursday’s discussion, however, he said a KPD captain refused to allow him to enter with a video camera despite the event being a public meeting.
“I’ve never heard of a closed public meeting,” Mr. Hayes said.
“You won’t be coming in, sir,” the captain responded while gesturing others into Kinloch City Hall. “You two wanna come in? Come on.”
The Fox affiliate recorded video footage from outside the venue while its reporter, who claims to have already been given permission to cover the meeting, asked the captain to cite the statute supposedly prohibiting him from recording the event.
“I’m telling you you’re not coming in here with a camera. Now, do you really want to play it up?” the captain told him.
When the reporter again asked if it was a public meeting, the official took him by the wrist and applied a set of handcuffs.
“Police cuffed me and shackled my leg to a holding bench,” Mr. Hayes recalled.
“They wrote court summonses for ‘disorderly conduct’ and ‘failure to comply’ and then released me after posting bail with a September court date.”
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri law states: “A public body shall allow for the recording by audiotape, videotape or other electronic means of any open meeting.”
Although Mr. Hayes missed the meeting, another KTVI employee who made it in said citizens brought cameras into the event. Mr. Hayes’ recent investigation on the police department’s lack of insurance was indeed discussed, but officials said financial difficulties preclude the KPD from covering its cop cruisers for the time being, the station reported.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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