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San Diego law enforcement considers expedited release of videos of police shootings

donal brown May 19, 2016

San Diego County cities plan to release videos of officers shooting citizens immediately if the public requests them. The expedited procedure is intended to increase public trust according to law enforcement leaders. “We believe it is important for the public to understand what happened during a critical incident, such as a shooting. Presented out of context, a video clip alone can lead to incorrect and sometimes inflammatory narratives about shootings. With context, video evidence can

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California earns C- for government transparency and accountability

donal brown November 10, 2015

The bad news is that California state government received a C- for transparency and accountability in a 2015 study from the The Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. There is no good news; the highest grade in the country was a C. (The Center for Public Integrity, November 9, 2015, by Nicholas Kusnetz) California earned Fs in public access to information and judicial accountability and a D+ in state civil service management. It earned

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A&A: What penalties have local governments faced for violating the CPRA?

FAC September 16, 2015

Q: I’m developing program to teach our office staff how to handle PRAs, and am looking for some examples of local governments, preferably in California, that have been penalized for not abiding by the terms of the law.  Is a lawsuit the only way to remedy it?  Can you share any examples? A: It is admirable that you are training your employees in how to respond to Public Records Act requests.  In general, it seems

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A&A: How can my records request meet deadline if staff assigned is on vacation?

FAC September 11, 2015

  Q: I made a Public Records Request and received confirmation, but the attorney wrote that my request for is too complex to release now. I sent a reply and learned that the attorney left on vacation for a week. I don’t think there’s an I’m-on-vacation exception in the CPRA. What do I do now? A: The PRA sets forth certain clear requirements with respect to timing of disclosure, and agencies should not be permitted to simply disregard them.

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FOIA request reveals relationship between CIA and producers of Zero Dark Thirty

donal brown September 10, 2015

With 100 pages of CIA documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Jason Leopold and Ky Henderson of Vice News, September 10, 2015, revealed the relationship between the CIA and the producers of Zero Dark Thirty, the 2012 film about the discovery and killing of Osama Bin Laden’s in Pakistan the previous year. The CIA documents showed that the filmmakers gave gifts to CIA officers, at first mostly unreported, and obtained access to

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