1350                                        LAWS OF MARYLAND                                  Ch. 525

vehicle laws of the State or of any other traffic law,
ordinance, or regulation[. It does not include written];

(2)    WRITTEN opinions of a court that have
been published[.];

(3)    CASH RECEIPT AND DISBURSEMENT RECORDS
NECESSARY FOR AUDIT PURPOSES; OR

(4) A COURT REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF
PROCEEDINGS IN MULTIPLE DEFENDANT CASES.

(c)    "Expungement," with respect to court records
or police records, means the effective removal of these
records from public inspection,

(1)    By obliteration; or

(2)    By removal to a separate secure area to
which the public and other persons having no legitimate
reason for being there are denied access; or

(3)    If effective access to a record can be
obtained only by reference to other records, by the
expungement of the other records, or the part of them
providing the access.

(d)    "Law-enforcement agency" includes any state,
county, and municipal police department or agency,
sheriff's offices, the State's attorney's offices, and
the Attorney General's office.

(e)    "Police records" means all official records
maintained by a law—enforcement agency pertaining to the
arrest and detention of or further proceeding against a
person on a criminal charge or for a suspected violation
of a criminal law. It does not include investigatory
files, police work—product records used solely for police
investigation purposes, or records pertaining to
violations of the vehicle laws of the State or of any
other traffic law, ordinance, or regulation.

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act
is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and
necessary for the immediate preservation of the public
health and safety and having been passed by a yea and nay
vote supported by three—fifths of all the members elected
to each of the two Houses of the General Assembly, the
same shall take effect from the date of its passage.

Approved May 4, 1976.

CHAPTER 526