Transparency News, 7/2/20

Police departments across Hampton Roads are responding to calls for use-of-force reports to be released to the public.
WTKR

In downtown Norfolk, demonstrators are holding their ground for a third day, pushing for the release of use of force records from the Norfolk Police Department. Norfolk city leaders said they now plan to release more detailed data, including easy-to-read aggregated information and a breakdown of use of force cases by area and race. However, the protesters and the city are still at odds over the release of information that would show which officers are involved in which use of force cases. What if a small group of officers is involved in a large amount of use of force cases? Right now, there’s no way for the public to tell.
WVEC

Family members of a Roanoke man who died in April are pushing for more answers surrounding his death. The Roanoke Police Department told Israel Jackson’s family that he died by suicide after he was missing for nearly three weeks. His family says he was not suicidal. They held a news conference Monday because they believe there is more to the story and they want the facts from the police department. Roanoke Police said they have provided information to family members and said the Medical Examiner determined Israel’s death to be a suicide. The family’s attorney, Meriowitz & Wasserberg, LLP, said they legally put in a request to Roanoke Police for all documents on June 22 and are waiting for a response Tuesday. They say they will respect if this was Jackson’s choice, but want the facts first.
WSET

State Sen. Louise Lucas filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a Virginia Beach attorney who is trying to have her ousted from office. Tim Anderson launched the effort after a protest during which Portsmouth’s Confederate monument was heavily damaged and a demonstrator was seriously injured. WAVY-TV reported that Anderson accused Lucas of inciting a riot, a felony, and of telling police to stand down while people defaced the monument. In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Lucas — a Portsmouth Democrat — said Anderson “irreparably damaged my reputation in the community, in the Commonwealth, and in the world.”
The Virginian-Pilot

Andrea Oakes was elected mayor during Wednesday’s organizational meeting for Staunton City Council at A.R. Ware Elementary School. Mark Robertson was named vice mayor. The vote was split with council members Carolyn Dull, Terry Holmes and Brenda Mead voting against Oakes. Council members Mark Robertson, Amy Darby and Stephen Claffey and Andrea Oakes voted to elect Oakes to the position.  Before voting, Dull, who has served as Staunton’s mayor since 2014, said she felt it was important to share the reasons for her vote. . . . “Second, she has demonstrated either ignorance or disregard for Robert’s Rules of Order, and our own council memoranda that the City Council unanimously agreed upon operating rules for council meetings,” Dull said. City Attorney Douglas Guynn, who was presiding over the meeting before the election of the mayor, said Dull’s comments were out of order.
News Leader

 

 

 

As the coronavirus has swept the country, forcing state and local governments to adjust to a new way of doing business, the public’s ability to keep track of government activities has not been easy. Video meetings are often the best governments can offer, and that has put new limits on public participation. But when it comes to government economic development deals and efforts to attract jobs, secrecy is nothing new. Whether or not there is a pandemic, the public’s access to information about these deals is limited. Hundreds of projects — with tax breaks, offers of public property, property tax abatements and other sweeteners — are proposed each year by state and local governments to attract private companies who promise to bolster the local economy with jobs and the creation of spinoff industries. These efforts do not appear to have slowed during the pandemic, and the costs and benefits to the public remain difficult to calculate. State laws, including in Florida and neighboring states, are a patchwork of regulations that tend to land on the side of corporate secrecy, more often than not. And an effort in Florida to make economic development deals more accessible to public scrutiny failed this year for the third time in the state legislature.
WUFT

Police in San Francisco will stop releasing mug shots of most people who have been arrested, a change that Chief Bill Scott described as a groundbreaking attempt to curb implicit bias in policing. The publication of mug shots on social media or in the news “creates an illusory correlation for viewers that fosters racial bias and vastly overstates the propensity of Black and brown men to engage in criminal behavior,” Scott said Wednesday as he issued the directive.
San Francisco Chronicle