Sunshine and Shadows - Results of the National Security Archive FOIA Audit

The National Security Archive at George Washington University released its latest government-wide FOIA Audit. The Audit reveals that, despite the Obama administration's calls for greater governmental transparency, the federal government still has a long way to go on FOIA reform effort. For example, the Audit found:

• Ancient requests--as old as 18 years--still persist in the FOIA system.
• A minority of agencies have responded to the Obama and Holder Memos with concrete changes in their FOIA practices.
• Only four out of 28 agencies reporting--including Holder's own Justice Department--show releases up and denials down under the FOIA.

Read more about the Audit here.

Fourth Annual Canadian FOI Audit Released

Many Canadian police forces obstinately refuse to report on taser stun gun usage, despite an apology from RCMP Commissioner William Elliott last year for excessive secrecy, and mounting public controversy surrounding the deaths of taser victims.

This is among the findings of a new audit by the Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) of freedom of information regimes across Canada, released today. The annual exercise tests how readily officials disclose information that should be publicly available on request.

The full report is here, along with extensive coverage and a release.

A Cool New Audit....

More than two-thirds of health care reporters taking part in a First Amendment survey have had stories held or left unpublished because the Food and Drug Administration did not respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner.

Only a third of reporters said they received a response within the required 20 days called for in the federal Freedom of Information Act. Many waited months or years – or never received requested data, according to the survey and analysis conducted for the Association of Health Care Journalists by graduate students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Nearly half of the reporters completing the survey said they were "very dissatisfied" with the FDA's processing of FOI requests, although only 15 percent ever filed complaints. Many said they were satisfied with the information they received, with a quarter of them saying the information resulted in major stories.

AHCJ is an independent, nonprofit organization of more than 1,000 health journalists dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. The survey is part of AHCJ's ongoing effort to track the responsiveness of federal health agencies to data requests from journalists.

Medill's graduate students, who conducted the research, were part of the journalism school's Washington, D.C., reporting program.

A student team traveled to FDA headquarters in Rockville, Md., to request documents from the reading room. Documents requested included a list of all FOIA requests made by journalists over the past 10 years. Surveys and interviews were conducted with these journalists, as well as members of AHCJ. The survey received 169 responses, including 44 from reporters who had filed FOIA requests in the past five years.

More here.

Student Press Law Center Doing Some GREAT Sunshine Week Work...

If you haven't seen it, Sunshine Week is kickin' it this week...

Requesting financial records from a public school district can cause some staff to raise their eyebrows. But obtaining the records is often quite simple, and the information could make an informative high school newspaper story.

The Student Press Law Center called 15 public school districts across America asking for the superintendent's expense reimbursements for the 2006-07 school year. Our test was not designed to be scientific, but we chose school districts located in different areas, to see if there were noticeable differences. The population of these communities ranged from 14,000 to 1.5 million.

We sent formal request letters to all districts except Sioux Falls School District, in South Dakota, which faxed us the information immediately after our phone call.

The records we received by the time this article was printed showed that the size of the school district did not always correlate with their superintendent's reimbursements. Phoenix, with a population of 1.5 million, spent about $3,800 reimbursing its superintendent, while East Baton Rouge Parish School System, with a community population of about 429,000, spent more than $11,000. Sioux Falls spent the least amount at about $300. Laguna Beach spent the most, at $18,500, but $18,000 was for relocation expenses for a new superintendent. Overall, districts spent the most on travel reimbursements, meals and conferences.

Most district representatives, while acting respectful, acted as though this information had never been requested before. The most common questions asked were "What are you using this for?" and "Are you looking for anything in particular?" The answer we gave when asked why we needed the records was "We are doing some research at the office." We wanted to avoid being too specific because all we really wanted to know is if districts would comply.

More here.

See the whole test here.

Nice new audit by Cal Aware...

The vast majority of San Diego’s law enforcement agencies are still not meeting the basic requirements of California public records law, according to an audit organized by Californians Aware, an open government advocacy group.

The audit, carried out in San Diego by local journalists, found that local law enforcement agencies had reasonable or good customer-service levels, but that most of them still do not provide citizens with basic information about crimes.

The California Public Records Act requires that such information, including traffic accident reports, crime logs and an agency’s financial records be made available to the public. In theory, any citizen should be able to walk into their local police station and pick up a report on a crime that has been committed in their neighborhood.

But when auditors in San Diego tried to do just that they came up empty-handed time and time again, according to the audit. The auditors visited the major police stations for 12 law enforcement agencies in the county and asked for a police report on a recent burglary or other property crime in the area. The auditors took notes on everything from how they were treated by police staff to how long it took to get their results.

More here.