Our View: Government does not operate well in secret
Names of police subject to internal affairs complaints are public records, judge rules
The names of police officers who are subject to an internal affairs complaint, as well as the names of complainants, cannot be shielded from the public under the state Open Public Records Law, a state judge has ruled.
In the decision, handed down Thursday, state Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne in Bergen County found the Bergen County Sheriff's Office wrongly redacted the information in records provided to John Paff, a self-proclaimed open government activist.
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OU student’s lawsuit seeks campus parking ticket data
Part of the college experience in Norman is the daily fight for a place to park. With more cars than parking spots, the university hands out tens of thousands of parking tickets.
Data from the University shows the school gave nearly 60,000 parking tickets last year—bringing in nearly a million dollars in fines alone.
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Freedom of information and police don’t always mix
It isn't uncommon for conflicts to arise between the news media and law enforcement agencies over the release of information.
Police are protective of their investigations and worry about showing too much of their hand. News reporters are hard-core advocates of the public's right to know and question anything that stands in the way of gathering information freely. As standoffish as the two groups can sometimes be, there's also a reliance on each other. There are times one can benefit from the other.
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Ferguson, Missouri, demands high fees to provide government files after Michael Brown shooting
Officials in Ferguson, Missouri, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of some of their own employees' salaries before they will agree to turn over files under public records laws about the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Missouri's attorney general on Monday, after the AP first disclosed the practice, contacted Ferguson's city attorney to ask for more information regarding fees related to document requests, the attorney general's spokeswoman said.
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Wisconsin media, cities compromise on open records
Wisconsin open records advocates and municipal leaders have brokered a truce in a fight over police record redactions, creating a request form that allows the public to get clean copies if they reveal who they are and why they want the documents.
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Files should be open: Private police wield government powers and should be accountable
Law-enforcement agencies wield great power and therefore must be accountable to the public for its use. This applies regardless of who is paying an officer’s salary, especially when that employer is an institution such as a university.
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A tweet sees Vancouver police FOI process enter the digital age
The Vancouver Police Department now accepts freedom of information requests submitted via email.
Until today, requests made to the VPD under B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act had to be mailed or faxed.
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Police misconduct files must be made public, court rules
The Chicago Police Department can no longer keep misconduct records secret, a state appeals court has ruled.
The Illinois Freedom of Information Act doesn’t exempt “CR files,” which consist of misconduct complaints against officers and documents created during the investigations, the court found Monday.
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