When Glen Grays was inexplicably handcuffed and hauled off by the police in Brooklyn on March 17 while delivering the mail on his route in Crown Heights, the world soon learned a bit about him.
At a news conference given by Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, at which a video of the encounter was made public, Mr. Grays’s mother explained that she had six sons and worried about all of them.
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Read More… from Culture of concealment protects New York City police officers
A provision in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal to fully subject the Legislature to the Freedom of Information Law would be unlikely to lead to a torrent of new records being made available to the public.
The idea has widespread support in the transparency community, but some advocates think the governor’s top priority should be ensuring that existing FOIL requirements imposed on the executive branch work as smoothly as possible.
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Read More… from New records gained under legislative FOIL would likely be minimal in New York
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who vowed to bring transparency to City Hall, repeatedly met with lobbyists but failed to disclose the sit-downs as promised.
An analysis of hundreds of pages of de Blasio’s personal schedules found dozens of meetings and conference calls with lobbyists that were not included on a list of “lobbying meetings” posted on the city’s website.
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Read More… from Mayor de Blasio fails to follow through on transparency promise
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced the relaunch of a newly designed state open government website.
By visiting the online public data portal, www.NYOpenGovernment.com, users will be able to tract more easily what issues lobbyists and their clients are advocating, and how they result in specific legislation.
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New York's regional council process that has awarded nearly $3 billion since 2011 for economic development lacks transparency and doesn’t adequately report on the outcome of various projects, according to a new report.
The report from the Citizens Budget Commission concluded that state hasn’t provided enough details to properly evaluate whether the 10 regional councils are creating jobs with the money doled out by the state.
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Read More… from Report: New York’s regional councils lack transparency
If you've ever filed a Freedom of Information request with a public agency in New York, you probably know that it can be way too hard to get the goods.
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The uniquely restrictive New York State law that is used to conceal the disciplinary histories of police officers — even some who have committed crimes — reared its head again last week in misconduct proceedings against the officer who brutalized the retired tennis player James Blake during a mistaken arrest in Manhattan last month.
The state law on officers’ histories is the only one of its kind in the nation. Continue…
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Read More… from Editorial: New York law hides police misconduct from the public
Headquarters for New York City’s health and police departments are separated by the East River, but they might as well be worlds apart when it comes to transparency.
In December, identical public record requests for a list of employees were sent to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the New York City Police Department. Continue>>>
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Read More… from FOIL’d: The pursuit of open records in New York
Police agencies nationwide and across Western New York are increasingly adding body cameras to their uniforms in response to public demands for more oversight of police.
"The benefit to the body camera is wherever I go, the camera goes," said Det. Thomas Dewey, NFTA Transit Police.
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Read More… from New York: Cameras arise from public demand for scrutiny
ALBANY–A bill shortening the time a state agency can take to appeal a Freedom of Information Law decision passed the Senate on Monday, three months after passing the Assembly.
The measure, sponsored by Senator Michael Ranzenhofer, a Republican from Western New York, and Assemblyman David Buchwald, a Westchester Democrat, passed both houses unanimously.
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Read More… from New York: Shorter FOIL appeal process passes Senate
