National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Author: NFOIC

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IL: Cop camera footage: Public record or police property?

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It took more than a year for Chicago police – under pressure from the media and the public – to release video footage of the 2014 shooting that left Laquan McDonald dead, 16 bullets in his body. When a judge finally insisted the video be released, it cast major doubt on the police department’s version of events.
State secrets

The State Secrets project is a joint effort by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Local governments hide public records, face few consequences

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IL: Freedom of Information Act benefits taxpayers

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FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, is the single best bill ever passed to actually benefit any concerned taxpayer.

Have you ever wondered about such things as what bills you, the taxpayer, are paying to operate our county offices, city services or the big one, just how are we spending our tax dollars to operate our local schools. If you don't think it is the big one just look at your last property tax bill.

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IL: Follow FOIA to the letter, Mr. Mayor: This email dump doesn’t resolve your transparency issues

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The Illinois Freedom of Information Act says citizens "are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees."

It does not say, "unless those affairs are conducted on a personal email account."

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OK: An example of why pursuit of government transparency matters

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THE disconcerting story of taxpayer money being used to settle a sexual harassment complaint against an Oklahoma House member underscores the importance of a robust media and its daily pursuit of government transparency.
The Oklahoman’s veteran reporter Nolan Clay broke the story Wednesday of $44,500 in state funds being paid to a former legislative assistant and her attorneys. The 28-year-old woman complained that state Rep. Dan Kirby, 58, began sexually harassing her shortly after she began working for him in January 2015.

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Lawmakers speak out against proposal to ease public-hearing requirements

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A hearing on whether the state's transportation planning process should have fewer hearings has brought out complaints from some state lawmakers.

Reps. Sherry Roberts, R-West Greenwich, and Jared Nunes, D-Coventry, on Tuesday wrote separately of their concerns that a proposal to streamline the planning process would badly curtail public involvement.

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Struggle for open records persists

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Questions of transparency cropped up throughout the tiers of state and local government over the year as legislation, city policy and school board votes presented an air of secrecy.

Among the more notable local battles for transparency this past year was efforts by the Sun-Gazette to continue publishing daily police activities as it has done for the past three decades. This came about after city police began withholding emergency dispatch records, also known as police logs, in February.

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Critics see dangers lurking in framing of Clinton search warrant

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Arguments the government offered behind closed doors when seeking a search warrant in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails are causing alarm among some transparency proponents and civil liberties advocates.

An affidavit unsealed Tuesday by a federal judge in New York shows that the FBI claimed there was probable cause to believe that a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, contained evidence of crimes involving illegal possession of classified information.

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Government Requests For Facebook User Data Up 27 Percent

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The latest transparency report from Facebook, released on Wednesday, reveals a considerable uptick in requests from governments around the world during the first half of 2016.

According to figures from Facebook, government requests for user data from the social network jumped from 46,710 in the first half of 2015 to 59,229 in the first half of 2016, representing a 27 percent increase.

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Georgia Supreme Court to hear hospital open records case

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Hospital authorities and the hospitals they operate must be transparent.

The state’s highest court has the opportunity to send a strong message to all governing bodies that the public’s business must be public.

Open government is the law in Georgia.

We are pleased to learn the Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to consider the arguments of the Georgia Press Association, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and plaintiff E. Kendrick Smith.

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