firstamendment

Withholding of Juveniles’ Names in Police Records Q: There’s a bit of a gang war here in Salinas, and many of those involved are juveniles. I understand police can withhold names of juveniles involved in crime. But there have been recent cases of juveniles being murdered in gang violence. Even though the juvenile is deceased, the police are still not forthcoming with the victim’s name. This is probably not within the jurisdiction of the CPRA.

Obtaining Legal Records of a Public Agency Q: I have requested the list of legal expenses, by attorney, billing statements and /or invoices by case or project from the City and Redevelopment Agency.  I did not ask for any other information about any of the litigation or project. They took over a month to provide me with a ledger from the finance department with a listing of expenses only with just 3 of over 100

Child Services Court Records Q: I would like to know how can I obtain records for a previous case through Child services for my records and for court records for a case pertaining to child custody. A: As a general rule, you need to file a petition with the juvenile court to obtain access to records of juvenile dependency cases.  Under Welfare and Institutions Code section 827, the court is then required to balance the

Police Firing Records Q: I am looking into the reason for the firing of two officers from our local police department. The city confirmed that two officers had been fired during their probationary period but said it is against their policy to release the officers\’ names. Can they legally withhold this information? They also declined to discuss the reason for the firing, beyond saying that officers may be let go in their probationary period for