State and Local Stories
Police pushed back successfully Monday against legislation that would force departments to release suicide and other completed death investigation records to family members. Law enforcement officials said they feared too many unintended consequences from the proposal, and there was little support from the state’s Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council to make the change. The bill, from state Sen. Scott Surovell, grew out of a case in Virginia Beach. Police there ruled a man’s death a suicide, then denied his father access to records. The father sued, saying he wanted a second opinion on the case, and a judge sided with the department, agreeing that state law allows law enforcement to withhold this information.
Daily Press
A judge tossed out the removal-from-office lawsuit against Montgomery County Circuit Court Clerk Erica Williams on Monday, ruling that it had not been filed in accordance with Virginia law. At a hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Judge William Alexander ruled that the petitions used to try to oust Williams were improperly prepared because each signer was not under oath and had not been notified that they were signing under penalty of perjury.
Roanoke Times
National Stories
A new trove of interview summaries and notes from the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails lays out a series of allegations that could prove fodder for future attacks on the Democratic presidential nominee. The 100 pages, released Monday morning, include claims that Clinton “blatantly” disregarded protocol. Other claims include that a group of powerful State Department employees attempted to coordinate a document release, and that a department official asked for a “quid pro quo” related to the former secretary of state’s emails. The documents, part four of four to be released by the FBI, include notes and interview summaries that may illuminate more about the bureau’s decision not to recommend Clinton be prosecuted for her actions.
CNBC
Body cameras have been promoted as a solution to police misconduct. But the strange two-year saga of Seattle shows just how complicated total transparency can be.
New York Times
Every election cycle brings an intensified round of speechifying, editorializing and, nowadays, tweeting about what’s wrong with government. Is it too big? Or is it not doing enough? Are the policies wrong? Or the politicians? Is government out of touch? The answer — at least one answer — is actually very simple. People are unhappy with government because it so often doesn’t work well for them. They feel that too many of their interactions with government are hurting them more than helping them. Of course, disappointing government service isn’t intentional. Most government employees want to help their fellow citizens and business owners. The problem is that government has largely missed the customer experience (CX) revolution that has transformed the private sector and irrevocably altered people’s expectations of the organizations they deal with.
Governing
The FBI will launch a pilot project early next year to begin collecting use-of-force statistics nationwide and create the first online national database on both deadly and nonfatal interactions the public has with law enforcement.
Governing
GRANT STERN IS A MORTGAGE BROKER, radio broadcaster and the executive director of PINAC News, a national police accountability site—and he’s suing the city of Miami Beach and its mayor under Florida’s sunshine law to obtain some of the mayor’s tweets and his Facebook block list, among other things. In a complaint filed last week, Stern says the mayor, Philip Levine, “employs … digital mediums including social media to communicate official business,” noting that the Twitter and Facebook accounts at issue identify him as mayor and are used for constituent engagement and informing city residents of important events (e.g., the Zika outbreak in Miami Beach). These accounts are separate from Levine’s personal and campaign ones. That’s all significant because Levine posted a photo on his mayoral Twitter feed July 23 in which he’s greeting Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, and Stern responded in a tweet that linked an article he wrote criticizing Levine, with a comment blaming the mayor for causing a Miami Beach water pollution problem. After that, according to the complaint, Levine blocked Stern on Twitter. Stern then looked up Levine’s mayoral Facebook page and posted a comment requesting Levine’s “official” tweets in the last 30 days. That comment was deleted, and when Stern posted another to complain, Levine blocked Stern on Facebook and deleted the rest of his comments, the complaint alleges. (It’s possible, of course, that Levine didn’t personally take these actions, that they were taken by a staffer, but it doesn’t matter for legal purposes.)
Columbia Journalism Review
Editorials/Columns
It’s little wonder that a recent Old Dominion University survey of quality of life across the region found Portsmouth residents far and away the least satisfied. So much of this discord starts at the top, with Mayor Kenny Wright and a City Council far more intent on advancing personal agendas than serving the public interest. They are secretive and petty, divisive and mean-spirited — to citizens as well as each other. Many of the city’s most persistent ills predate this mayor and this council. But they have done little to make things better. Their contempt for transparency is not only well-documented, it is being litigated. A wrong-headed policy implemented by the City imposes fines on anyone who dares disclose the contents of closed-door discussions. Invocation of that law is an affront to citizens as well as the U.S. Constitution.
Virginian-Pilot