A few weeks back, the city of Doraville, Georgia drew international attention for a video posted to the front page of their Police Department website, depicting a SWAT tank training exercise, complete with stylized skulls, eagles, and an industrial metal soundtrack. The video was taken down during the Ferguson protests, and we’re trying to get info on how it was made, and why it was removed.

With Pennsylvania’s release of its statewide 1033 data yesterday, we now have the agency-by-agency item list for 33 states. Browse through an updated list, and follow our efforts to get the holdouts to cooperate.

For prisoners in private facilities, internal control over the administrative grievance process stifles the concerns of a population already limited in mobility, legal options, and credible standing.

Advanced cell phone tracking devices known as StingRays allow police nationwide to home in on suspects or to log individuals present at a given location. But before acquiring a StingRay, state and local police must sign a nondisclosure agreement with the FBI, documents released last week reveal.

The MuckRock 50 States of FOIA Project aims to shed light on what it’s like to work with public records around the U.S., through the voices of requesters state by state. This time, we focus on the state of Illinois.

After months of research and dozens of requests, we’re proud to announce that ACCESS/RI’s Rhode Island APRA Audit is officially live - and it’s not pretty.

As of September 10, Scheeler vs. the Office of the Governor of New Jersey is one step closer to being resolved in favor of the Plaintiff and transparency. Judge Mary Jacobson has ordered that Harry Scheeler’s requests for Open Public Records Act (OPRA) logs be satisfied and that the various New Jersey State agencies in question make the documents available by October 10.

Following last weekend’s 25th annual Hempfest/Freedom Rally in Boston, and the city’s recent ban on smoking of any kind in the Common, I was curious about how the Boston Police were instructed to patrol the event. But in the process for filing for this information, I came across one of MuckRock’s oldest overdue requests.

The MuckRock 50 States of FOIA Project aims to shed light on what it’s like to work with public records around the U.S., through the voices of requesters state by state. This time, we focus on the state of California.

Following a Pulitzer-prize winning investigation in the shipbreaking industry came a series of inquiries and reforms - among the changes, the Department of Defense promised to tighten its bidding process to weed out unsavory companies. But a decade and a half later, at least one company that scraps old Navy ships still falls short of bare-bones safety requirements, and faces light penalties when caught.

The California Office of Emergency Services today released an inventory of equipment received by state and local law enforcement via the Pentagon’s 1033 program. A handful of school district police departments participate in the program, including the Los Angeles School Police Departments, which has received more than 50 assault rifles, three grenade launchers and a mine resistant vehicle.

We’ve submitted a FOI request in each state for a detailed breakdown of military equipment transferred to local police departments. We’ve gotten back 26 so far, including Florida, Missouri, and the sleepy hamlet of Cut and Shoot, Texas.

Shortly after Hugo Chavez’s death a year and a half ago, MuckRock’s Shawn Musgrave requested the state department’s files on the Venezuelan president. Those docs have just started to come in, and unsurprisingly, they make for interesting reading.