As the national COVID-19 death toll passes the official 150,000 mark, the country is staring down the possibility of a second round of shutdowns. Major U.S. cities, however, have another challenger they’re preparing to confront: federal agents sent to subdue the residents in the streets challenging racism and police brutality. FOIA can help better understand the government’s crackdown.

This week we have more updates on policing transparency — and the lack thereof — as well as the unusual inspiration for a very hot FOIA tip. Read on for all of our FOIA updates.

States’ reopenings have largely been a sort of experiment, one that many now need to adjust as cases and deaths from the deadly virus continue to rise. Check out our newest training and the highlights from FOIA news this week.

Today, MuckRock’s Beryl Lipton and Open the Government’s Freddy Martinez will be featured in a training session hosted by the Project on Government Oversight. In coordination with that event, we’ve compiled some fast thoughts on how federal oversight and resources can complement local and state research and policy developments.

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.

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.

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.

Since June, more than 500 MuckRock readers have nominated their local police agencies for public records requests seeking data on the restitution paid to settle misconduct lawsuits. The data begins to provide some insight into how police misconduct has been handled so far in a particular agency and in what cases misconduct is substantiated or compensated when challenged.

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.

In just a few clicks of your keyboard, you can be on your way to knowing more about how your police department uses, abuses, and wastes taxpayer funding and trust.