National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

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Indiana bill to allow the withholding of body camera footage advances

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A legislative proposal allowing Indiana law enforcement agencies to withhold video from police body cameras is advancing unchanged.

The Indiana House rejected on a voice vote Monday a proposed amendment that would have judges release the video unless doing so would increase the risk of harm to someone or prejudice a court case.

Bill sponsor Republican Rep. Kevin Mahan of Hartford City argued against the change, saying he wanted a process that encourages police agencies to start using body cameras.

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Wisconsin firm sues state’s DNR over delays on records requests

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A Wisconsin public interest law firm filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Natural Resources, alleging unreasonably long delays in responding to public records requests.

Midwest Environmental Advocates said in one case it has been waiting for more than 10 months for the DNR to provide records it asked for, although in this case, the firm said it learned recently it had missed a payment deadline for processing the records. In another case, the law firm said it has waited more than seven months for records. 

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Editorial: Don’t mess with our Sunshine laws

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Every Floridian who cares about transparency in public affairs and about keeping government accountable to the taxpayers should be worried about the latest effort in Tallahassee to stifle the state’s public records law.

It’s a head-on frontal attack on the law, although it’s disguised as a mere word change in the existing Sunshine statute. The relevant wording states that a judge “shall” award attorneys fees when citizens win a lawsuit over a public records request that was wrongly denied. 

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OpenGrid: Conquer Chicago’s mountain of data with this powerful tool

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Chicago just launched a new website called OpenGrid, which is the city’s attempt at parsing the avalanche of data it’s been collecting for the past five years.

OpenGrid is a more usable evolution of the city’s Data Portal, a bare-bones website that hosts all of the publicly available information, which includes everything from building permits to noise complaints to city employee salaries (surprise: this is the most popular data set).

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Editorial: More open, accountable government is needed in Washington

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Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has two legislative proposals this year that can remove recent tarnish from Washington state government’s once sterling reputation for integrity and ethics in government.

The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan organization that grades states for ethics, gave Washington a D-plus grade this year, down from past years.

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Candidate for Indiana Governor proposes transparency initiative

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John Gregg, the Democratic candidate for governor, is calling for greater government transparency in a policy proposal announced Monday.

“While this governor would have created a taxpayer funded propaganda machine to control what information reporters and the public have access to, I want to throw open the doors of state government,” Gregg said in a release.

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Poll: Utahns want legislative debate out in the open

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Want to know how your legislator voted on Utah Access Plus, the proposal to expand health care to about 125,000 of Utah's poorest residents? Don't bother searching.

There was never an official recorded vote on the plan. In fact, the votes that doomed the health care bill were all taken in secret — with Republican House members voting in a closed-door meeting and GOP senators casting private votes after confidential discussions. 

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Editorial: Agenda for Connecticut government: Restore transparency, accountability

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In 2015, the legislature passed a bill that restored much of the public access to police arrest records that had been lost in a devastating state Supreme Court decision.

That legislative action — and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's signature — amounted to a welcome (and these days rare) victory for the cause of open government.

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Editorial: Don’t compromise access to Florida’s public records

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The Florida Legislature appears headed down a dark path to compromise government in the sunshine.

Bills are moving that would allow governments that violate public records laws to avoid paying legal fees of citizens who take them to court and win. That would remove one of the few incentives government officials have to produce public records, protect those withholding public information and compromise the ability of citizens to protect their constitutional rights.

When citizens are denied public records, their only recourse is to go to court.

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