The First Amendment Coalition today submitted a letter to the California Highway Patrol, urging CHP to release public records it has refused to disclose regarding the violent clashes at the California State Capitol on June 26, 2016. The letter also calls CHP to task for the apparent use of a public records request as a bargaining chip in witness interviews for an ongoing criminal investigation. As disclosed in a transcript filed in court recently, CHP voluntarily and unnecessarily took steps to disclose the identity of a public records requester to an individual with ties to a group classified as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. While public records requests are by no means secret, when an agency reaches out to disclose the identity of a public-records requester to people or entities who could do the requester harm, it creates an intolerable and unnecessary chill on the ability of the public to exercise its rights of access to public information.
You can read FAC’s letter here: