- By the 1990s, the clipboards were moved out of the lobby, so we asked at the counter to see them.
- For decades, journalists and civic activists have lamented the increasing secrecy of government – the times, they were denied government information, particularly from public records requests.
- Reports have shown secrecy getting worse at the federal, state and local government levels.
Openness benefits people and society
- And there are clear benefits: Open records are proven to lead to less sex-offender recidivism, fewer food service complaints, increased trust in government institutions and reduced corruption.
- Stanford University professor James Hamilton calculated that for every dollar spent by newspapers on public records-based journalism, society realizes benefits worth US$287 in lower taxes and saved lives.
Less transparency year after year
- Today, you might get it about 12% of the time, and the trend is steadily downward.
- Every year in mid-March, since 2005, national Sunshine Week has promoted the right of people to acquire public records and attend public meetings.
- Our research indicates that U.S. government secrecy has never been so prevalent.
- President Donald Trump’s administration was more secretive than Obama’s, and transparency continues to slide under the Biden administration.
Data tells a piece of the story
According to annual data collected by the U.S. Department of Justice, federal agencies have become more secretive over the past decade:
The prevalence of people getting what they asked for through FOIA requests declined from 38% of the time in 2010 to 17% in 2022.
In 2010, about 13% of the time, federal agencies would reply to FOIA requests by saying they couldn’t find records pertaining to the request. By 2022, the rate of that type of response had increased to 21%, which officials often attributed to outdated record management systems incapable of keeping up with the massive amounts of electronic records, particularly emails.
Backlogs, where requests languish beyond the 20-day legal requirement for completion, have nearly doubled since 2010, from 12% of total requests to 22%. The average number of days it takes to process simple requests, which require little staff time and a smaller volume of records, has doubled since 2014, from 21 days to 41 days, according to Justice Department reports.
- That includes denying people’s requests about properly withheld intelligence information.
- But it also includes refusing to release information on topics of great public interest, such as defective consumer products and employment discrimination cases.
- And some agencies’ public information officers obstruct public access to information.
- They limit access to the people and documents most important for government transparency and accountability.
Research-based solutions
- Independent oversight offices with enforcement power, such as in Connecticut, Ohio, Pennsylvania and more than 80 nations, provide private citizens an alternative to litigation.
- Our preliminary assessment indicates that there is a lot of work left to do, and that Congress and government agencies have ignored many of the recommendations.
- He is currently director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project, a nonpartisan organization at the University of Florida dedicated to research and education in freedom of information since 1977.
- The Brechner FOI Project coordinates Sunshine Week to educate the public about their right to know.
