The Scoop » Public Records

Explosive Gun Records

Derek Willis — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:32:42 +0000

The Journal News in suburban New York recently published a story about handgun permit records, reporting that “police have lost track of thousands of registered handguns because there’s no system in place to keep tabs on the weapons of state pistol permit holders who die.” The paper requested an electronic copy of state pistol records from state police, but they were unable to provide the data in anything but paper form; county clerks have the records, but in some they are kept on index cards. So the paper posted spreadsheets containing permit holder information for Westchester and Rockland counties, which it obtained from the county clerks. Queue outrage.

The paper reported Sunday that “dozens of readers have taken issue with The Journal News over its decision to run a list of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties as part of a wider investigative article.” The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association went further: it posted a list of “what it thought were home addresses and telephone numbers of newspaper staff members. The list inadvertently included addresses of people not associated with the newspaper or the articles.” That list was removed from the group’s site on Friday.

Let’s be clear: these are public records, and the newspaper and public have every right to see them and even post them on the Internet. In addition, they removed street addresses, listing the permit holder’s name, city and zip code. But every media organization has to weigh the benefit of making available public records that can identify individuals versus the potential backlash. Not the backlash against the paper itself – the state gun association’s Scientology-esque tactics are annoying but not the real issue. More meaningful for everyone is the backlash against public records laws, which in this case probably will be forthcoming on a local or even state level. Also, from my reading of the initial story, it’s hard to see how posting the records really improved the reporting. The paper’s conclusions about oversight were evident without posting the records.

Sunshine Week

Derek Willis — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 02:31:38 +0000

This week is Sunshine Week, when newspapers draw attention to the importance of access to public records through editorial cartoons, columns and news stories. Some notable pieces:

The AP’s assessment that “many federal agencies fall far short of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, repeatedly failing to meet reporting deadlines while citizens wait ever longer for documents.” Rebecca Carr of Cox News has more details on the federal FOIA program.

The News & Observer’s special section on public records availability in North Carolina.

Ohio’s consideration of whether to establish a government agency to help citizens obtain public records.

After a weekend at the NICAR conference in Newark seeing how crucial public records were to many different types of investigations and stories, it’s easy for journalists to understand why access is so important. The public needs to know how important it is for them, too.

Washington Sealed Cases

Derek Willis — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:29:06 +0000

Ken Armstrong, Justin Mayo and Steve Miletich of the Seattle Times have the first in a series of reports on sealed court cases in Washington State. “Since 1990, at least 420 civil suits have been sealed in their entirety. That means everything – from the complaint, which says who’s accused of what, to the judgment, which says how the case wound up – has been concealed, locked behind electronic passwords or number-coded keypads that restrict access to computer records and shelved files.” The paper has pledged to get the case files unsealed, and published this note on methodology.

Kentucky Hiring Practices

Derek Willis — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 14:37:46 +0000

Mark Pitsch of the Louisville Courier-Journal used Kentucky’s Open Records Act to obtain emails showing that “less than three months before the state hiring investigation began, Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s deputy chief of staff and the transportation personnel director confided to each other in e-mails that laws may have been broken.” The state’s Attorney General, who is investigating hiring practices under Fletcher, was unaware of the emails until the paper published them.

The Cost of Secrecy

Derek Willis — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 21:48:17 +0000

Rick Anderson and Chuck Taylor of the Seattle Weekly have the tale of one man’s public records fight against King County, Washington, officials:

Armen Yousoufian, 57, who once helped build missiles for Boeing, had to go where no man had gone before. He ran an eight-year gauntlet of closed King County government doors, bureaucratic roadblocks, and finger-wagging officials. They told him he just didn’t understand a state law that is intended to splash sunshine on the schemes of public servants.

Later this month, he is likely to show just how wrong they were. Yousoufian could be awarded up to $825,200 in public funds, although out of the goodness of his heart he is asking for merely $742,680. State law allows up to $100 per day in fines against public agencies that fail to disclose requested records.

Yousoufian’s initial request in 1997 was for records about Seattle’s football stadium, built with public money and now known as Qwest Field.

Pennsylvania Restaurant Inspections

Derek Willis — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 15:28:47 +0000

Tim Darragh and Christopher Schnaars of the Allentown Morning Call used state restaurant inspection data to show that Pennsylvania’s “patchwork of food safety laws and public health agencies often fails to provide even minimal monitoring of restaurants and food retailers.” The investigation includes a side bar explaining how the paper got the data, a process that took months to accomplish. Two Lehigh Valley boroughs, Coopersburg and Emmaus (where I attended middle school), refused to provide the reports, saying they were not public records. The paper also posted the database.

Affordable housing bond falling short

Matt — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:07:41 +0000

John Hill of the Sacramento Bee found that a $2.1 billion bond California voters approved to provide affordable housing hasn’t delivered. “With the pot more than half gone, a Bee investigation has found that what taxpayers are getting falls far short of those promises – a reality that takes on added importance as California officials face the prospect of finding a fresh source of revenue,” Hill wrote. The bond program’s claims of success rest on a series of claims that don’t withstand scrutiny, and officials are claiming more affordable housing has been created than was actually built.

Arizona Car Allowance Records

Derek Willis — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 17:15:37 +0000

David Madrid of the Arizona Republic reports on the results of a public records request the paper made asking council members in Surprise, Ariz., “to verify the miles and percentage of driving they do for city business” since the council was set to approve a 289% increase in car allowances. The paper’s request “was denied on the grounds that the information is not a public record. Council members aren’t required to keep track of mileage or to document auto expenses.”

Pennsylvania Police Records

Derek Willis — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:48:21 +0000

Debra Erdley of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that police agencies in Western Pennsylvania don’t always comply with the state’s public records laws: “About 40 percent of 217 police agencies surveyed declined to provide access to daily call sheets or police blotters.” Police usually cite ongoing investigations or confidentiality concerns when withholding access, but “the law and court rulings consistently say that the public has a right to examine police blotters or call sheets that detail the time, location and nature of daily police activities.”

Tennessee Sexual Harassment Cases

Derek Willis — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:47:56 +0000

Brad Schrade of the Tennessean asked state officials to provide documentation on their response to claims of sexual harassment, identified by Gov. Phil Bredesen as a problem. “When Bredesen’s office becomes involved in a complaint, as it did when the governor’s top lobbyist was demoted last month, notes are purposely not taken or are shredded, or case documents are not released. When other state departments handle cases, reports are generally kept on file as public records, according to a Tennessean review of available state documents. Indeed, state harassment investigators are trained to take notes and document the facts of a case.”