Government emails, metadata also top list of FOI-tech issues that leave us in the dark FOR RELEASE: March 14, 2022 Contact: Todd Fettig, NFOIC executive director Phone: 352-294-7082 Email: nfoic@nfoic.org March 14, 2022 — The public too often is being denied access to police body- and dash-cam footage. This ranks as the most critical […]
Read More… from Access to police-camera footage must improve, open-government advocates say
From “A mother’s quest for openness provides map for spurring change,” published March 1, 2022 in The Journal: A Civic Issues Magazine. “When Sheila Albers, of Kansas, couldn’t get answers to the questions she had after her 17-year-old son was shot and killed by an Overland Park police officer while the teen was in the […]
When law enforcement agencies across Maine were asked to turn over records of complaints and discipline, some departments provided a bundle of records, some provided basic information — and one in five did not respond at all. That’s according to an audit conducted by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, a member of the National […]
Read More… from Audit of Maine police agencies produces inconsistent results; 1 in 5 didn’t respond
Despite public pressure to make police misconduct and complaint records available to the public, many personnel records remain secret. In some jurisdictions, because of state laws or by contract, officers can conceal their personnel files, including records of wrongdoing. “Secrecy of police discipline has been a huge problem,” Sam Walker, an emeritus professor at the […]
A new law in Maryland opens to the public more police disciplinary records. According to a Nov. 24, 2021, report in The Washington Post, the new law has left police departments scrambling to respond to new records requests. Advocates for open records and police accountability applaud the law. “The inability to obtain records in police […]
While much of the world runs on digital transactions, it takes an actual paper checkbook and a lot of travel to unlock open records in many small agencies and police departments. A Michigan editor, who is leading a reporting project into police responses at a music festival at which four people died, found herself driving […]
Democratizing law enforcement data could benefit everyone — the police and the public they serve — argue Nancy La Vigne and Roy L. Austin Jr. of the Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Policing in an Aug. 26, 2021, guest column for The Washington Post. “We cannot fix a problem we do not fully understand,” they […]
Read More… from Law enforcement would benefit everyone by democratizing its data, column argues
Exemptions to state public records laws allow police departments to conceal vast amounts of information and stifle meaningful discussion about police reform and accountability. According to a Washington Post analysis: All 50 states and the District of Columbia allow police departments to withhold records they consider investigatory. And in 35 states, police misconduct records are […]
The National Freedom of Information Coalition and 23 other organizations joined a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press amicus brief supporting the release of police internal affairs records in New Jersey. In July 2019, a retired New Jersey police officer submitted a New Jersey Open Public Records Act request seeking access to police internal […]
Opening police records to routine and systematic public scrutiny is the way to stop officer misconduct, argues First Amendment Coalition Executive Director David Snyder in an op-ed published in The Mercury News. Snyder wrote in support of California bills to enhance police transparency, including SB 16, which would require disclosure of records related to misconduct. […]
