Public Records Are Being Put on a Need-to-Know Diet And The Public Is Not On The Menu

If democracy were a potluck, public records would be the recipe cards everyone brings so we can figure out whether the casserole is delicious or poisoned. 

Lately, though, the recipe cards are being hidden in the Government’s sock drawer — and we are being told it is for “our own good.” Yeah! Right!!

From Los Angeles to Florida, municipal governments are leaning into delay, technical excuses and fee-scaling to keep sunlight out of civic corners of society. 

The result: a slow-motion squeeze on the public’s right to know....and an eroding of trust.

Take the LAPD. A public agency located in on of the biggest city's in the US.

The department recently refused to hand over the raw COMPSTAT files and crime-map records requested by LAist, arguing the data is “preliminary” and could “lead to misguided public policy discussions or unjustified public panic.” 

In other words: the spreadsheet is too spicy for public consumption. 

Legal watchdogs weren’t impressed. 

David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition told LAist bluntly that “They don't have a right to withhold the data from the public just because they're afraid that people will misconstrue it,” adding that such a rationale “would destroy — the entire public records act.” 

That’s not just snarky; it’s a legal red flag.

LAPD says it’s wrestling with a legitimate technical headache: the department moved to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and, as other agencies have found, that transition can make incident counts look different (NIBRS reports multiple offenses per incident rather than just the single “highest” offense). 

The department has even reported certain arrest data as “currently unavailable due to structural errors and duplicate entries” — a genuine data mess, sure, but one that should invite fixes, not a blanket lock on records. 

Hiding messy data because it’s messy reverses the basic rule of accountability: publish first, explain second.

And this isn’t merely a West Coast Issue alone. No...This is an issue from coast-to-coast and everywhere in-between.

On the East Coast in small town of Dundee, Florida, a professional news journalist waited in the town hall lobby for what seemed longer than usual, hoping for meeting minutes after residents protested a nearly 33% spike in the property tax millage ceiling. 

A local Facebook post captured the sentiment of dozens who pleaded for moderation — “Despite our unified voices, the Commission voted 5–0 to adopt the highest allowable rate. I’m disappointed … it’s hard not to feel unheard.” 

When the news journalist asked the Dundee clerk for the official minutes from that meeting, the clerk produced two pages of incomplete shorthand and a bureaucratic game of hide-and-seek began, leaving the public without the clear record that the enactment of the Sunshine Law demands! 

That’s small-town opacity with big consequences. 

In St. Petersburg, the problem got litigated. 

Resident Bradlee McCoy filed suit after his public-records requests went unanswered for more than a year — a reminder that silence has a cost and the law only helps if it’s enforced. 

When cities treat delay as the de facto response, watchdogs and residents are forced into expensive litigation just to read the minutes of the meeting that affects their taxes, policing, or local planning.

There’s a pattern here: plausible excuses (technical migrations, preliminary data, resource limits) are turning into policy. 

Agencies sometimes levy steep “research” or copying fees that deter small newsrooms and ordinary citizens. 

They offer in-person inspections instead of electronic delivery even when the records live on a server. And they lean on “preliminary” or “misleading” arguments to withhold files — but the law favors disclosure with narrow, specific exceptions, not broad “trust us” pronouncements.

So what’s the fix that’s not satirical? 

First: publish electronic records by default with explanatory metadata — messy is still useful if you label it properly! 

Second: standardize fees and require agencies to send electronic copies when feasible so cost isn’t a barrier. 

Third: fund records offices properly; slow responses are often the child of under-staffing, not mystery. 

Finally, litigate where necessary and shine a light: if the public can’t see the numbers, it can’t hold officials to account.

If you think this is mere procedural nitpicking, remember that hidden records don’t stay harmless. 

They let policy shift quietly, contracts get awarded without scrutiny, and residents lose their right to weigh in before the bulldozers come. 

Government is our enterprise; public records are the shareholder reports. WE are the shareholders!

If we let officials hide the books because the numbers are “complicated” or “messy,” we no longer own the company — we just rent a seat in a very opaque boardroom of a company that we used to own!

Penny for Your Thoughts? How the U.S. Said ‘See Ya’ to the Cent

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#PublicRecordsArePublic #SunshineLawsNow #ReleaseTheRecords #CompstatNotClassified #NIBRSNotANExcuse #LAistVsLAPD #DundeeMinutesMissing #StPeteRecordsSuit #OpenDataOrBust #TransparencyNotDelay #NoPaywallForPublicInfo #ElectronicDeliveryFirst #CivicOversight #WatchdogModeOn #GovernmentIsOurBusiness

Sources: LAist coverage of LAPD’s refusal to release COMPSTAT and David Loy’s comments; DailyRidge report on Dundee meeting minutes and Michelle Lee Thompson’s post;Tampa Bay Times reporting on the St. Petersburg lawsuit.