The state doesn’t publicize officer employment histories, making it impossible to track so-called wandering officers.

The police chief in Orange County’s Village of Chester claimed his department had no misconduct records. He was hiding an investigation into his own alleged malfeasance.

In almost every FOIA policy discussion these days, the topic of AI comes up. What we are already seeing should be concerning to those who want broad access to the public’s information.

Last November, Reuters published an extensive report — backed by interviews, internal communications and public documents — on Appin, an Indian cybersecurity training firm. A month later, an Indian court ruled in favor of a plaintiff for a preliminary injunction that claimed the article defamed not just the company in question, but was “derogatory to the entire Indian nation.”

The committee, established to hear testimony on the issue and recommend legislation, will meet Oct. 15.

Lisa Rowan of Cardinal News leveraged DocumentCloud’s Regex Extractor and Azure Table Extractor to investigate a school board’s unusual lawsuit against a parent. By analyzing financial documents, she revealed the hidden costs associated with the case. This Add-On case study demonstrates how data extraction tools can streamline reporting, enabling journalists to efficiently navigate large sets of financial information and enhance their investigative work.

For the Society of Environmental Journalists freelance tips newsletter, MuckRock’s Dillon Bergin offers a step-by-step guide to filing document requests, organizing and analyzing your documents and joining the FOIA community.

We’ll be releasing the experience for everyone in mid-November. Keep reading for an in-depth explanation for why we started this project, how we approached it, and how it succeeded.

MuckRock’s September FOIA Friday conversation focused on opening up the statehouse through requesting data and documents such as calendars, contracts, lobbying data and travel logs.

Since at least 2023, the Attorney General has asked the federal government how it uses machine learning for public records. We want to know more.