Transparency News, 6/8/20

After a week of demonstrations demanding police accountability, officials in Richmond aren’t saying how police are being held accountable for tear gassing a large crowd of peaceful protesters. “I don’t think the chief plans to revisit this anytime soon,” said a police department spokesman, Gene Lepley, of the incident a week ago Monday. “He has apologized repeatedly.” Other questions the department wouldn’t answer include: What policies govern the department’s use of chemical irritants? How many officers have been disciplined in connection with the incident? What disciplinary action was taken against them? What was the finding that resulted in that action? The department also refused to say whether any disciplinary actions have been taken following other incidents.Under Virginia’s open records law, which grant police wide discretion to keep records secret, officials aren’t required to release use-of-force reports and rarely disclose them. Asked whether the department planned to share the results of its investigations at any point in the future, the department’s spokesman, Lepley, responded with one word: “Unknown.”
Virginia Mercury

The data was hotly anticipated.  But less than 24 hours after the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the names of nursing homes with COVID-19 cases, it became clear there were problems.  Case numbers for Virginia showed a sharp discrepancy with data from the state’s Department of Health.The dataset showed no information for 29 facilities. And one of the worst-ranked nursing homes in Virginia for COVID-19 deaths — a county-owned facility with a four-star rating from CMS — said the agency made a grave error in reporting.
Virginia Mercury

Virginia Beach police on Friday provided more details on the dozens of arrests made during two protests earlier in the week in the city, as some demonstrators called for an investigation into tactics used by the department. On the first night of protests — last Sunday at the Oceanfront in response to the death of George Floyd — 28 charges were filed by Virginia Beach officers, according to the information.
The Virginian-Pilot

The Fairfax County prosecutor investigating the 2017 slaying of unarmed motorist Bijan Ghaisar says the FBI has withheld about 260 documents from its investigation into the fatal shooting by two U.S. Park Police officers, and he wants to see them before deciding whether to seek charges in the case.
The Washington Post
 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she is rescinding an emergency order that suspended parts of Michigan’s public records law during the coronavirus pandemic. The emergency order that gave state agencies more time to respond to Michigan Freedom of Information Act requests, issued in early April, will be lifted June 11, Whitmer said in a news release. “As we slowly and safely reopen our economy, it’s important to roll back emergency orders designed to deal with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Whitmer said.  The order was especially targeted at requests made by regular mail, fax or by hand delivery. But it also applies to requests made by email or other electronic methods.
Detroit Free Press