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Showing 111 - 120 of 1167 results

Asked and Answered

CPRA Police Records

Jail Files of Prisoner Suicide

[…] 6250 et seq., records maintained by public agencies are presumptively available for public inspection and copying unless one of the Act's exemptions applies. In this case, that exemption that likely applies is found in section 6254(f), which exempts "records of investigations" as well as "investigatory files" held by law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, the California […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA

California Driver’s License Numbers and the CPRA

[…] medical, or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Govt. Code § 6254(c). It is not clear, however, whether this exemption would apply to driver's license information for licensed businesses, as such records would not necessarily be "personnel, medical, or similar files," and the disclosure of the […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA Newsgathering

Autopsy records of a public official

[…] report. Hepatitis A or B can be contracted from any number of sources, including homosexual sex, intravenous drug use, blood transfusions, etc. I thought the right of privacy under this exemption goes away when the individual dies. True? In your opinion, is this a case the media would likely win if we went to court?

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA Police Records

How Do I Request 911 Call Transcripts?

Records of 911 calls are public records under the California Public Records Act and, therefore, must be disclosed unless a specific exemption to disclosure applies. If you made a written request, the agency must determine whether the records are disclosable within 10 days of your request, and "promptly notify" you, in writing, if it […]

March 25, 2020
Handbooks

Reporter’s Field Guide: Police Shootings

[…] allows the public to both scrutinize police actions that could lead to lost life and inform community dialogue on best policies and practices in the future. This guide covers access rights and reporting tips, offers template request letters and tailored model correspondence for negotiating denials of records requests, and covers both fatal and non-fatal shootings.
- Government Transparency and Accountability
September 8, 2025
Handbooks

Reporter’s Field Guide: Immigration Enforcement

[…] under the California Public Records Act to report on immigration enforcement. It also provides information on immigration courts and detention centers across the state. Links to guides for accessing federal records through the Freedom of Information Act can be found in Section IV. The explainer is divided into five sections: Section I: California Laws […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
September 2, 2025
Pages

Why Support FAC?

FAC’s vision is a California in which the rights promised by the First Amendment are available and enforced for everyone, irrespective of wealth, politics or access to power. Every day, FAC’s team of First Amendment experts fight for these protections and for government transparency on multiple fronts, bringing our decades of experience to bear […]

July 20, 2024
Asked and Answered

Trying to access the transcript of a 911 call

[…] ("PRA") would govern your request. Whether or not the 9-1-1 transcript (or tape) should be released will depend on whether it is considered "investigatory." The investigatory records exemption of the PRA, Gov’t Code §6254(f)(2), allows police and other investigatory agencies to withhold investigatory files from the public, even after the investigation is over. See, […]

June 16, 2015
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Requesting welfare application of divorced spouse

The kind of information you are seeking--names and addresses--may fall under the California Public Records Act ("PRA") privacy exemption. The PRA provides that public records are presumptively open to the public, unless exempt from disclosure under the PRA. The PRA exempts from disclosure "[p]ersonnel, medical, or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute […]

July 16, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Is US’s federally-funded research exempt from CPRA?

[…] who paid for them to be generated; rather, if the agency is in possession of the records, then those records are presumptively subject to disclosure unless some exemption applies. Furthermore, a "state agency" includes state universities. Gov't Code § 6252(f). Thus, the Public Records Act applies to UC Berkeley and its records. See, e.g., California […]

March 19, 2014