The Virginia-based advocacy group Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project talks to Tom Nash about how they use public records to push for police oversight.

Driven by movements for police accountability, civilian oversight agencies have become commonplace across the county. But often politically weak and under-resourced, they fail to live up to the aspirations of the activists that fight for them. In Providence, Rhode Island, a civilian oversight agency works to reestablish its legitimacy.

Police oversight takes a step forward in California once the new year hits. Two new laws will give access to internal police investigations and body camera footage in 2019, prompting police agencies to prepare for incoming records request.

For this week’s FOIA round-up, the Central Intelligence Agency won’t tell the family of a tortured suspect where his body is, journalists file over 500 public records request to track police use of force in New Jersey, and the University of Arizona spends big money on NCAA corruption investigations.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed a handful of bills this week including new legislation that increases transparency within local jurisdictions in California. In addition to the two new laws we wrote about earlier this week SB-978 was signed, which requires law enforcement agencies to publish their “training, policies, practices, and operating procedures.”