The options you have at your college’s fountain machine are usually determined by a contract with one of the two big names in beverages: Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
Despite an estimated 175,000 sexual assault evidence collection kits that sit untested in evidence rooms and crime labs across the country, there is no federal law in place mandating policies or testing of kits, and we don't know how many more go uncounted. This project aims to end that, one city and one kit at a time.
The #DeeperThanWater FOIA project is an effort of the Deeper Than Water Coalition, which aims to expose the injustice of mass incarceration through the lens of water justice. This specific project aims to make available all public documents pertaining to the ongoing refusal of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to provide safe and clean drinking water to prisoners detained at MCI-Norfolk and surrounding facilities.
Whether it's your first request or your first request *today,* it never hurts to go over the basics. MuckRock's compiled a lot of FOIA advice over the years, and with this project, it's all in one place.
Back for a second year, FOIA March Madness pits 64 federal government agencies against each other to process an identical request for standard materials, a battle for the title of Most Responsive Agency.
Now entering its third year, FOIA March Madness pits 64 federal government agencies against each other to process an identical request for standard materials, a battle for the title of Most Responsive Agency.
Now entering year four, FOIA March Madness pits 64 federal government agencies against each other to process an identical request for standard materials, a battle for the title of Most Responsive Agency.
Documenting extremist and hate groups through government documents, ranging from the small time racist groups to the domestic terrorist branches of the KKK. This project takes an inclusive approach of identifying hate groups, regardless of whether they focus on race, sexual identity, religion, etc. Many of the groups were identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In our culture of expanding surveillance, we are constantly encouraged to report suspicious activity to authorities. What can be done when the people you want to hold accountable are the police themselves? This project means to subvert that attention from our fellow citizens towards law enforcement.
Police misconduct is often hidden from public view and settling the lawsuits that result can be a regularly costly business for police departments. Police departments in the United States spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to pay the victims of these crimes.
Help us shine a light on misconduct settlements in your town. Submit the name of a city and state. We’ll handle the rest.
The phone line can also be a lifeline when trapped behind bars. But telephone access isn’t a right in U.S. prisons, and for many, the cost of a call would be prohibitive - if it weren’t just so essential to maintaining relationships with loved ones on the outside.
What does the local police union contract provide for benefits, transparency, and accountability? We’d like to help you better understand labor protections afforded local law enforcement.
MuckRock offers a number of ways to help the public learn more about local law enforcement. Add your city to the Assignments below, and we'll submit public records requests to learn more.
This project will try to shed light on how domestic violence is still treated differently from other violent crimes, and how this affects the lives of the abused.
Every day, American inmates find themselves on the open road, hurtling toward their next holding cell. With little in the way of medical training, food, bathrooms, and patience, the circumstances can be far worse than where they're going - if they make it.
Call it what you will, experts agree that solitary confinement sucks. The technicalities of terminology may seem like a small issue–on the inside, there can be dozens of names for the "hole" you're in – but for policy makers and and rule breakers, the official glossary category can have important implications for restrictions, record keeping, and reform.
Here is our collection of solitary confinement policies from across the fifty states and the federal agencies.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock have a launched a new public records campaign to reveal how much data law enforcement agencies have collected using automated license plate readers and are sharing with each other. Follow along with the requests on this page.
This project aims to sift through the hundreds of thousands of pages of FBI archival material we've released, so we can better understand why the Bureau had an eye on these people - and through that, better understand who they're keeping tabs on today.
We'll be shining a light on your Bay State public records struggle! Trouble getting meeting minutes from your city council? Are your local police refusing to release logs or other public information? Whatever your public records struggle, we want to hear about it!
"Seeing a need to streamline public data sets, we built The Accountability Project to put much of that data in one place so journalists, researchers and others could search across otherwise siloed data."
For over a century, dental professionals have been using amalgams containing mercury to fill cavities. But in an age of assumption testing, is tradition enough to keep it up? Help MuckRock find out what the federal government has to say about the most controversial element in our mouths today.
For-profit detention continues to reap the rewards of an incarceration system filled to the brim and facing an uncertain future.
Our FOIA requests have released thousands of documents that show how for-profit prisons have leveraged the legal system to their advantage, letting companies pick-and-choose inmates to off-load costs, ignore complaints and concerns, and create dangerous conditions for prisoners and staff alike.
This is all done while billions of taxpayer dollars are funneled into these private companies, which then pour millions into politicians' campaigns to keep their growth going.
With your help, we can provide needed scrutiny of an industry few are even aware exists.
In 2015, the Massachusetts legislature seriously took on the issue of reforming its woefully inadequate public records laws for the first time since the early '70s.
But change does not come easily to the Commonwealth, and open gov advocates found themselves faced with an up(Beacon)battle over even the mildest of fixes.
Transgender students face even higher rates of discrimination and violence than lesbian, gay and bisexual youth. As a result, their access to a safe and successful education is threatened daily. While politicians, parents, and the public debate legitimacy, we want to see what schools are doing to support transgender students.
After our three-year lawsuit led to the public release of 13 million pages of declassified CIA records, we've begun a daily-deep dive into the depths of the Agency's seven-decade history.
Residents in DeKalb County have experienced issues with their water service for years: inaccurate and high water bills, sewer spills, contracting corruption, and technological failures.
Have you had an issue with your water service in DeKalb County? Please share your story with us!
We're partnering with LittleSis to launch a crowdfunded, crowdsourced campaign to reveal how police across the country are using social media to monitor people and events.