Transparency News, 1/29/21

It’s been more than six months since Virginia’s red flag law took effect. Apart from a few news articles, there’s been little data on how authorities around the state are using it to seize guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Legislation proposed in the House of Delegates would change that, giving researchers more access to information kept in a State Police registry meant to track who substantial risk orders have been filed against in Virginia courts. The data freed up by the bill, according to Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, its patron, would be scrubbed of all personally identifying information. That means no one would have access to a list of names. But more general data would be available to give policymakers a better sense of how the law is being applied.
Virginia Mercury

More than 20 people have applied for the vacant Chuckatuck Borough City Council seat, but who they are will stay under wraps. City spokeswoman Diana Klink confirmed that there are 21 candidates who have applied for the open seat, created after Mike Duman, who had previously represented the Chuckatuck Borough since 2011, won a four-way race for mayor. However, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, Klink said that state code “exempts personnel records containing information concerning identifiable individuals.
Suffolk News Herald

A Virginia gang task force has dropped use of a database that catalogues thousands of alleged gang members across the Washington region after activists raised concerns that minorities are disproportionately represented in it and its use is shrouded in secrecy. The Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force is the first local law enforcement entity in the D.C. area to discontinue use of GangNet, according to the program which oversees use of the database in the region. The database has stirred controversy in a handful of jurisdictions across the country in recent years.
The Washington Post

 

Attorneys representing a group of journalists and community organizers argued before an appeals court Thursday that a decades-old Maryland statute barring the broadcasting of criminal court proceedings violates the First Amendment. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit heard nearly an hour of arguments in which the plaintiffs’ attorneys pushed back against the state of Maryland’s solicitor general, who argued that the courts had a duty to limit third-party publication of audio or video recordings to protect the integrity of witness testimony.
The Washington Post

Coroners’ reports, including certain identifying and medical information for people who died with covid-19, are public under Arkansas law, a state attorney general’s opinion released Wednesday says. The request’s central question was: “Are the records of county coroners regarding people who have died of COVID-19, or whose deaths are COVID-19 related, subject to public disclosure and release under the Arkansas FOIA?” The attorney general opinion request came after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asked for coroners’ death reports from Garland and other counties for those who died with covid-19. The newspaper requested the reports under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, which requires most documents produced by government officials in their work to be made public.
Arkansas Democrat Gazette