When should we have access to police records? FAC’ Exec. Dir. Peter Scheer and KPCC’s Frank Stoltze participated in an hour long #muckedup Twitter chat that raised eight questions regarding the public’s right to access law enforcement documents. Catch up with MuckRack’s Storify recap.
The California Legislature will consider a FAC-backed bill to narrow the CPRA’s exemption for information on water usage by customers of government water districts. The bill, AB 1520, would reverse the outcome of an unsuccessful lawsuit filed by FAC against the Coachella Valley Water District in 2014. The CPRA for nearly 20 years has had a special exemption, Gov Code section 6254.16, for public utilities, including water districts, allowing them to withhold “usage data” for
FAC has filed an amicus brief in a case testing a local government agency’s power to take back records it has released to a requester under the CPRA. The Newark Unified School District, in releasing documents, mistakenly included records that were subject to the attorney-client privilege. The school district demanded return of the documents and the requester refused. The central issue is whether the inadvertent release of privileged documents causes a “waiver” of the attorney-client
The First Amendment Coalition today filed suit against the San Diego Police Department to obtain information about the SDPD’s purchase and use of surveillance equipment that can identify and track all cell phones in a specific location, such as a building, neighborhood or street intersection. “We believe the SDPD has an obligation to tell San Diego citizens that it is using this invasive technology and to describe the steps it is taking, if any, to
An open-government coalition led by FAC has filed an amicus brief in a California freedom-of-information case involving access to data of government contractors that the contractors are required, under their agreements wth local government, to create and maintain. In Flynn v. Los Angeles a PRA requester seeks information in databases about the towing and storing of cars parked illegally on LA streets. The towing and storing is handled by private firms under contracts with the