New Arizona Law Will Make it Illegal to Film Within 8 Feet of Police
Civil liberties groups oppose the law, saying it will impede First Amendment–protected activity and protect bad cops.
Transparency
Cop Who Killed Tamir Rice Briefly Hired by Small Pennsylvania Town
After community outrage and the mayor saying he wasn't told about Timothy Loehmann's policing background, the officer withdrew his application.
Texas State Police Chief: Uvalde Was 'Abject Failure,' Police Could Have Stopped Gunman in 3 Minutes
"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children."
Texas Law Enforcement Is Aggressively Fighting Public Records Requests About the Uvalde Mass Shooting
Transparency advocates say police could invoke a notorious loophole that allows them to hide records of deaths in custody and police killings.
Florida Officials Use a Victim's Rights Law To Stop a Newspaper from Printing Deputies' Names
They shot and killed a man they were trying to evict. Doesn’t the public have the right to know who they are?
U.S. Spent Over $21 Billion on Afghan Police, Got 'Barely Qualified Mall Guards'
New SIGAR findings shine a light on America’s dysfunctional efforts to train the Afghan National Police, which “actually contributed to increasing criminality” in Afghanistan.
Free PACER! (Or At Least Free PACER Docket Searches)
The judicial conference endorses making PACER searches free for non-commercial users.
Fresno Bans Journalists—and Everyone Else—From Filming Cops Clearing Out Homeless Camps
The ACLU of Northern California is suing to overturn the ordinance.
New Jersey Town Sues Elderly Woman for Filing Too Many Public Records Requests
Irvington Township says it's being bullied by 82-year-old Elouise McDaniel and is asking a court to block her from filing public records requests.
FBI Will Publish Long-Delayed Police Use-of-Force Data
Lack of participation from police departments has stymied the FBI's national use-of-force database for the past three years, but FBI Director Christopher Wray said a required threshold has finally been met.
The FBI Is Hiding an Unpublished Police Use-of-Force Database From FOIA Requesters
Three years since it launched, an FBI data collection program on police use-of-force incidents has yet to gain enough participation to release any statistics.
Supreme Court Rules the CIA Can Keep Mouths Shut About Its Post-9/11 Torture Black Sites
All of this is a transparent effort to stop lawsuits from those who have been tortured.
New Report Highlights an Old Problem—the CIA Is Still Snooping on Americans
In a program separate from the ones disclosed by Edward Snowden, we see more mass secret domestic data collection.
FOIA Advocates Say Biden Administration Is Ignoring Transparency Issues
New administrations usually issue memos on transparency. The Biden administration has ignored calls to do so.
D.C. Cops Conspired to Keep Records From Reporters, Activists, and Critics, Says Lawsuit
Defense lawyer Amy Phillips is suing over what she calls the department's "watchlist policy."
Supreme Court Rebuffs Attempt To Open Up Access to Classified FISA Court Reports
Do Americans have a right to know the extent that the government surveils them?
Top Cop Who Presided Over Deadly Corruption in Houston Loses His New Job in Miami 6 Months After He Was Hired
Art Acevedo provoked many complaints, but they paled in comparison to his prior record of negligence and obliviousness.
School Board Seeks to Prevent Web Posting of Materials It Released to Fulfill FOI Request
The Fairfax County School Board took legal action to cover up its own mistake.
New York City Is Hiding Its K-12 Enrollment Decline
How big is the defection from government schools in the country's largest district? That's for politicians to know, and you to find out.
The Publication of the Pentagon Papers Still Sets an Example 50 Years Later
Whistleblowers and publishers are crucial for keeping government officials reasonably honest.
Anthony Fauci May Not Have 'Lied' About Face Masks, but He Was Not Exactly Honest Either
The COVID-19 adviser's unsatisfying explanation of his conversion feeds skepticism about the value of a sensible precaution.
North Carolina Releases Body Camera Footage of Deputies Killing Fleeing Suspect
State investigators say shooting justified because Andrew Brown Jr. drove toward law enforcement to escape arrest.
North Carolina's Terrible Body Camera Law Blocks Important Information in a Controversial Police Shooting
Will the public ever see why deputies shot Andrew Brown?
The Confusion Surrounding Brian Sicknick's Death Was a Failure of Government Transparency
Blame the media for running anonymous sources, but don't let government off the hook for its secrecy and misinformation.
Florida Cops Use a Victims' Rights Law To Conceal Their Names
Poorly written “Marsy’s Law” may keep citizens from knowing which officers are using deadly force on the job.
Investigators Say Portland Activist Michael Reinoehl Likely Fired at Police Before He Was Fatally Shot
Reason is still waiting on public records related to the shooting after a judge blocked its requests until the investigation was completed.
Appeals Court Rules Against New York Police Unions, Says Misconduct Records Can Be Released
The 2nd Circuit rejected the police unions' arguments that disclosure would invade officers' privacy and put them in danger.
I Asked for Public Records on a Fatal Police Shooting. Then a Washington Sheriff's Office Sued Me.
The move is similar to what's known as a "reverse FOIA" lawsuit, which forces the requester to go to court to defend his right to access public records.
"Tear Down This Judicial Paywall"
The federal judiciary should not be charging for access to public court records.
House Passes Bill To Make Federal Court Records Free to the Public
The PACER database is antiquated and expensive to access, and that's just the way the federal judiciary likes it.
Justice Department Will Let Local Cops Wear Body Cameras in Task Force Raids
It's an improvement over the status quo. But time will tell how frequently the feds try to suppress important footage.
Why Are Political Journalists More Scared of Revealing Their Votes Than Baseball Writers?
Transparency is only for the little people, it would seem.
Who Watches the Government's Watchdogs?
Expansive and expensive government programs represent irresistible temptations for sticky-fingered crooks.
Release Body Cam Footage
With the right freedom of information and use policies, wearable cameras could still be a powerful weapon to increase transparency.
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Assault Reporter, Then Attempt To Mislead Public About It
Tensions are high over the weekend shooting of two deputies.
Police Unions Lose Bid To Block Release of Huge Trove of NYPD Misconduct Records
The unions argued that releasing unsubstantiated complaints would harm officers' reputations and threaten their safety.
The Supreme Court, Livestreamed and Uncut
Just like millions of their fellow Americans, the justices would have to adjust to the strange new realities of social distancing and working from home.
New York Police Unions Partly Succeed in Stopping Release of Misconduct Records
A federal judge gags the New York Civil Liberties Union, but a media outlet manages to collect and publish a database of misbehaving cops.
This Week in Policing Reform: Hawaii Lifts Police Secrecy, Civilian Oversight Boards Make Ballots in Miami and Philadelphia
And Sen. Tim Scott (R–S.C.) says policing reform in Congress might not be dead after all.
Police Agencies in New York and Los Angeles Drag Their Feet over Body Camera Footage and Misconduct Records
Efforts to force sunlight into police conduct have been thwarted by noncompliance.
Why Haven't We Seen the Body Cam Footage of Duncan Lemp's Killing?
It's been nearly four months since a Maryland SWAT team killed Duncan Lemp, and there's been no transparency.
The Federal Government Spent Nearly $3 Trillion on Coronavirus Relief. Oversight Has Been a Mess.
Members of Congress may have benefited from small business funds, and government watchdogs are warning that the program appears susceptible to fraud.
Trump Administration Says Identities of Coronavirus Stimulus Loan Recipients Are 'Confidential'
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says that information is confidential. Government watchdogs say that excuse is bogus.
New York Legislature Repeals Notorious Police Secrecy Law
New York was a national outlier in hiding police misconduct records. The state legislature finally repealed the law responsible for it.
Houston Police Chief's Record Belies His Reformist Rhetoric After George Floyd's Death
If Art Acevedo had any shame, he would be engaging in less grandstanding and more introspection.
5 Ways to Curtail Police Violence and Prevent More Deaths Like George Floyd's
From tighter use-of-force rules to eliminating qualified immunity, here are some reforms that could make a real difference.
