Car registrations provide a trove of information, allowing us to see what matters to owners, a bit of their personality and, indirectly, where people are driving.

Read a great FOIA-based news story we should highlight? Let us know and maybe we can include it in our next round-up!

A star quarterback’s career almost cut short over a case of fecal misidentification, a questionable profit center for departments of motor vehicles, and the citizen gripes behind a brewing Rhode Island bike war. All in a week’s work for public records.

In this week’s FOIA round-up, records show federal law enforcement officials combine facial recognition software with drivers liscened databases to track undocumented immigrants, an admiral slated to become the next U.S. Navy chief abruptly retires after damaging emails are released, and legal rights groups raise questions about the constitutionality of gang policing.

Last month, San Francisco became the first municipality in the country to ban the use of facial recognition by city departments. Later today, Somerville, Massachusetts may join its ranks. Agencies in other cities, however, aren’t waiting for city councils to weigh in, implementing policies that bar the use of facial recognition. Though the agency-level limits are not subject to the public development and enforcement that support city or state-level rules, they can be important measures in an agency’s own relationship with residents.