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CPRA

A&A: Does the CPRA allow access to mug shots?

FAC December 23, 2012

Q: Reporters in our news organization deal with several police departments who routinely deny requests for suspect mug shots. Most recently, a mug shot of a driver in a fatal hit and run case was requested. As they always do, the police department denied our request for the mug shot and offered this standard reasoning for the exemption: A: ”Based on your request for ‘the mug shot of the suspect arrested this morning for the

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How to sabotage California’s Public Records Act

FAC October 15, 2012

By Peter Scheer—If you were looking for a way to sabotage America’s freedom-of-information laws, you couldn’t do much better than a legal strategy being pursued by government entities in two California towns. The public school district of Willows, in Glenn County, and the town of Sebastopol, near Petaluma, have been sued, in unrelated cases, for access to public records–emails of government employees, primarily. These government defendants have vigorously opposed the suits. That, of course, is

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A&A: Who can request documents under the CPRA?

FAC September 19, 2012

Q: Does the California Public Records Act require residency in California to access documents or are they available to visitors from out of state?  Does the CPRA provide a request process?  If so, is it mandatory? A: Your first question asks whether governmental agencies in California need comply with the Public Records act when the request comes form a non-citizen of the state. The answer is “yes.” An agency’s obligation to follow the law does not

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A&A:City says building plans can be viewed but not copied

FAC September 19, 2012

Q: The city attorney is citing the Health and Safety Code Section 19851 to support the city’s denial of copying building plans submitted to the city and on the planning commission agenda and council agenda but not yet approved. He says that until building plans are approved, they are the architect’s property and can be viewed, but cannot be copied. Is this the common interpretation of Health and Safety Code Section 19851 We had wanted

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CPRA case wins release of officers’ names in UC Davis pepper-spraying

FAC June 28, 2012

The names of the UC Davis police officers who pepper sprayed students’ faces during protests last spring were ordered released by an Alameda County Superior Court judge Tuesday. The lawsuit was filed by the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee against the UC Regents last month under the California Public Records Act to compel release of the names of all the officers in the pepper-spraying incident. Only two names had not been redacted from the

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