News
Original reporting, commentary, and analysis of public records by MuckRock’s staff and affiliates, with new articles every weekday.
Five hundred people have requested local police settlement data. Here’s where and how you can join them.
Over 500 volunteers have sent in suggestions to our MuckRock Assignment asking to submit local police departments as candidates for more transparency around the money spent by police departments to settle or battle lawsuits.
At least a dozen New York police departments claim to have no misconduct records from the last 50 years
At least 12 New York state police departments claim to have no records of officer misconduct from the past 50 years, according to responses to Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests.
FOIA Roundup: Cities pass more police transparency measures
As protests for police accountability and reform continue, transparency changes are already taking place in cities across America — even as public records show emerging new challenges.
Release Notes: Testing a more flexible crowdsourcing system to tackle COVID-19 questions
We’ve loved seeing the creative ways users have used our Assignments crowdsourcing tools, from digging through documents to building petitions. Now, to help newsrooms quickly gather answers to big questions, we’ve created an experimental spinoff of Assignments designed to help organize volunteers in gathering and label large amounts of data no matter where it may live.
New York State senator blasts requests, saying police transparency “unintended consequence” of police transparency bill
A New York state senator blasted MuckRock’s latest transparency project to access police disciplinary records, calling it an “unintended consequence” of recent legislation designed to allow access to police disciplinary records.
FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master
FOIA Roundup: Cities pass more police transparency measures
As protests for police accountability and reform continue, transparency changes are already taking place in cities across America — even as public records show emerging new challenges.
FOIA Roundup: Avenues to accountability in the age of COVID-19
We’re offering a free training session and plenty of ways to demand transparency in the midst of a pandemic and the movement for police accountability.
This week’s FOIA roundup: Ukraine redactions and new officials, bills and squabbles in the states
The weekly roundup of the latest in FOI. See something we missed? Let us know!
For Texas, the new year will bring stronger contract transparency
In January, amendments made under recent Texas legislation will go into effect, strengthening the Texas Public Information Act (PIA) and addressing court-created obstacles to accessing contractor information within the state.
Transparency changes in response to COVID-19
New York officer misconduct and disciplinary materials
At least a dozen New York police departments claim to have no misconduct records from the last 50 years
At least 12 New York state police departments claim to have no records of officer misconduct from the past 50 years, according to responses to Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests.
New York State senator blasts requests, saying police transparency “unintended consequence” of police transparency bill
A New York state senator blasted MuckRock’s latest transparency project to access police disciplinary records, calling it an “unintended consequence” of recent legislation designed to allow access to police disciplinary records.
New York repealed Section 50-a last week. Now it’s time to get the records.
For almost fifty years, police disciplinary records in New York state have been kept confidential under the state’s Civil Law Section 50-a. That all changed last week, and now we’re working to make as many of these previously secret documents public as we can. Here’s how to follow along.
Five hundred people have requested local police settlement data. Here’s where and how you can join them.
Over 500 volunteers have sent in suggestions to our MuckRock Assignment asking to submit local police departments as candidates for more transparency around the money spent by police departments to settle or battle lawsuits.