“U.S. government secrecy has never been so prevalent, and the stakes and potential ramifications for everyday people are significant.”
So says the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida after having analyzed government agencies’ compliance with public records laws.
Project Director David Cuillier, former director of the University of Arizona School of Journalism, and a co-researcher wrote the analysis after 37,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests were submitted through Muckrock for the study. The report, first published in an academic journal in March but reported on the Brechner site April 16, is called, “Tale of two requesters: How public records law experiences differ by requester types.”
Cuillier said that “a decade ago, if you requested a public record from the federal government, you might get it about half the time. Today, it’s about 12% of the time.”
Referring to a separate 2019 study he conducted, Cuillier also said that “the trend is similar though less uniform among state and local governments. You might receive what you ask for two-thirds of the time in Idaho or Washington state, but only 10% of the time in Alabama.”
Arizona ranked 10th best of the 50 states and the District of Columbia district government, although Cuillier found you’ll get a requested record in Arizona only 52% of the time. Here’s access to the Brechner post, which contains a link to the full study.
The full URL for the post is: https://www.jou.ufl.edu/2024/04/16/study-average-americans-more-likely-to-be-shut-out-of-government-records-process/
SPJ: Phoenix, Arizona Chapter 