Transparency News 10/19/15

State and Local Stories

When the state Alcoholic Beverage Control officers who made the bloody arrest of a student in Charlottesville were to be returned to duty, their agency wanted to announce the decision. Reporters were emailing questions, and ABC's communications team crafted a news release that was approved by ABC leadership and sent to the governor's office for review. The governor's press office told ABC it would be rewriting the statement. The final version, which ABC sent to news media, contained what open-government advocates called a misstatement of the law: That the state code prohibited release of a report on how Martese Johnson was arrested because it was a personnel record.
Virginian-Pilot

In a project that eventually may open Central State’s vast store of medical and administrative files to researchers and genealogists worldwide, University of Texas at Austin professor King Davis has led a project that has digitized more than 100 years of the hospital’s records. They kept almost “every scrap of paper,” Davis said of the hospital’s record keepers, speaking recently about the project, which has been underway since 2009. “Every newspaper article. Every report. When I came here with my archive students from Texas, there were 800,000 documents scattered everywhere. All over the hospital, in the medical records library, in boxes, in file cabinets,” Davis said. “They cover every aspect of this hospital, from when it started, why it started, with the Freedmen’s Bureau, why it moved from Henrico County to Mayfield farm in Petersburg, the role of (the) legislature, the role of the black legislators.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

After nearly a month of using body cameras, most Orange County Sheriff’s deputies seem pleased with the recording devices, the department’s chief deputy said. Chief Deputy Mike LaCasse reported to county supervisors at their meeting last week that body cameras have now been issued to “anybody wearing a uniform” at the Sheriff’s Office. He said the reaction from deputies and the public has been positive. “The deputies have been taking to this really well,” LaCasse said. “The camera not only keeps a record of what is going on, but also records what they are doing, as well. The policy also states that besides law-enforcement and court officials, only people who are in the recordings are allowed to see them.
Free Lance-Star

Concerned parents in a Washington, D.C. suburb say the local school board acted hastily in making “gender identity” part of its non-discrimination policy, but those same public officials are in no rush to release behind-the-scenes information leading up to their controversial decision. The Fairfax County (Va.) School Board is taking months, not the legally required five days, to respond to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for all communications between school board members and state and federal officials regarding the board’s decision to include gender identity in its non-discrimination policies. The FOIA requests, filed through Judicial Watch five months ago, are an attempt by Fairfax parents and residents to understand the discussions leading up to the policy change last May.
CNSnews

Hampton Police launched an "open data portal" Friday that allows anyone to access various types of information on its website. The portal includes crime statistics, officer-involved shooting information, a community police event calendar, and incident and offense reports. The effort is a part of the Police Data Initiative, which falls in line with President Barack Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which is aimed at reducing crime and building public trust. The president's task force was formed in December 2014 after several high-profile police shootings. Hampton Police Chief Terry Sult said the portal makes the department more transparent, adding that transparency is needed in good and bad times.
Daily Press

After being criticized by his Catoctin District opponent for his attendance record, Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) responded in kind Friday. Higgins says Democrat Craig Green has missed a large percentage of meetings as a member of Hamilton's Town Council and Planning Commission.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

License plate readers' role in capturing Vester Lee Flanagan, state police said, is a recent example of the tools' utility. The readers, which typically resemble security cameras, take pictures of license plates and the backs of vehicles using infrared light. Plate numbers then are digitized so they can be logged into a database. Scanner manufacturer Elsag North America says a single camera can take pictures of 900 plates per minute and capture numbers on vehicles going up to 150 mph. Police say the readers help them locate stolen license plates and vehicles, find cars associated with missing children and senior citizens and track down wanted suspects. The readers also can be used in a myriad of other ways — for tax collection, automatic toll booths and tracking down drug dealers, according to Elsag’s website. But the merits of the devices are clouded by other questions. No state law identifies how long license plate records can be kept. Police policies vary widely. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County over the issue. In April, Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed legislation that would have restricted storage to a week. Both civil liberties organizations and state officials argue that reasonable limits could be imposed without hampering lawful use of the device.
Roanoke Times

National Stories
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A lawyer for a Libyan man charged with being a ringleader of the deadly 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi complained Friday that the government is turning over information about the attack in Freedom of Information Act lawsuits before providing it to the defense in the criminal case. The claim came at a court hearing in Washington on Friday for Libyan national Ahmed Abu Khatallah, who is facing a slew of terrorism and murder charges in connection with the assault that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
Politico

The Government Accountability Office this week quietly published a list of titles of its restricted reports that have not been publicly released because they contain classified information or controlled unclassified information. A new link to "Restricted Products" appears at the bottom of the GAO homepage (under Reports & Testimonies). http://www.gao.gov/restricted/restricted_reports "This list is intended to keep Congress, federal agencies, and the public informed of the existence of these products. The list consists of all such classified or controlled products issued since September 30, 2014 and will be updated each time a new report is issued," the GAO webpage says. "We did not issue a statement or announcement" concerning the new listing, said Timothy L. Minelli of GAO Congressional Relations. A congressional staffer said the move was prompted by concerns expressed by some Members of Congress and staff that they were unaware of the restricted reports, since they had not been indexed or archived by GAO.
Secrecy News

This, of course, may be an exception: call it the freedom of information exception, or the public information in the public interest exception. But what began as an effort to keep the executive under check by the Congress became a law that helped journalists, historians, and ordinary citizens monitor federal agencies. Nearly 50 years later, it may all sound easy and obvious. It was neither. And this burst of political engagement is rarely, if ever, mentioned by journalists themselves as an exception to normal “acts of journalism.”  But how did it happen at all?
Columbia Journalism Review

Editorials/Columns

There are other issues for voters to consider in these races, but we do not believe any are more important than whether taxpayers have access to records entitled to them under the law. We would therefore urge citizens to strike a blow for transparency and accountability in these races come November. 
Daily Press