Latest news with #AccesstoPublicRecordsAct
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Brown University police arrests are not public. ACLU lawsuit is looking to change that.
A gate on the Brown University campus. The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island is suing the university's Department of Public Safety for refusing to give arrest reports to local journalists. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) A new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island aims to stop a three-decade practice in which Brown University police officers keep arrest reports hidden from the public. The complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court Monday was prompted by a pair of journalists — one is a former Brown University student journalist who graduated in 2024 and the second writes for arts and entertainment publication Motif Magazine. Each was separately refused reports of unrelated arrests made by Brown University's Department of Public Safety. Brown University contends that the officers work for a private agency, and therefore are not subject to Rhode Island's Access to Public Records Act. The ACLU argues that because Brown's police officers have the same seizure, detention and arrest powers as local and state law enforcement — laid out under a 1995 law — their actions, including arrests, should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other government agency or public body. 'By engaging in one of the most fundamental functions of government — the enforcement of criminal laws and exercising the power to search and seize individuals — BDPS is acting on behalf of and/or in place of a government agency or public body,' the seven-page complaint states. The legal action comes as good government advocates, including the ACLU, rally for more sweeping reform of the state's public records law, which has not been updated since 2012. Among the 48 changes proposed in legislation pending before the Rhode Island General Assembly is a provision clarifying that private university police bestowed arrest powers by the state must be subject to state records laws. Rhode Island School of Design police are the only other private university in Rhode Island given power to arrest under state law, though they are not named in the complaint. Steven Brown, executive director for the ACLU, said the good government group has received half a dozen complaints, mostly from journalists, about Brown University's refusal to hand over arrest records when asked. 'It just seems so clear that a police department, wherever it is located, is operating as a public agency when they detain and arrest individuals,' Brown said in a recent interview. 'It is rather daunting to consider the power that they have as law enforcement, that they claim they can hide.' Brian Clark, a spokesperson for Brown, said the university had not received the lawsuit as of Monday afternoon. 'Should we receive it formally, we will review it in full,' Clark said in an emailed response. Clark also pointed to a January opinion by the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General affirming that Brown's police department is not subject to state public records law because it is not a government body or public agency. The eight-page opinion by Paul Meosky, special assistant attorney general, aimed to settle disputes between the university and two local journalists — the same two people named as plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit — over access to campus police arrest reports. Meosky concluded that it was 'undisputed' that Brown University's police department was a 'unit of Brown,' and therefore part of a private, nonprofit institution — not subject to state open records laws. 'Nothing in the record suggests that BUPD has open meetings or is listed as a public body on any government website,' Meosky wrote. 'Additionally, the record demonstrates that the BUPD is not authorized to operate beyond the university's campus and its immediate vicinity.' Meosky also noted 'the strong public interest' in campus police records. 'We strongly encourage the General Assembly to carefully review this issue and whether the APRA should be amended to make law enforcement-type records maintained by private campus police departments subject to the APRA,' the opinion states. Timothy Rondeau, a spokesperson for the AG's office, said the opinion 'speaks for itself' when asked for comment about the lawsuit. 'Our Office has been, and will continue, to be vigorously committed to open government,' Rondeau said in an email. 'This was a challenging issue, and we will await the Court's guidance.' Brown said he was disappointed, but not surprised by the AG's opinion, which followed what he called a 'pattern of deferring to local police departments when it comes to open records laws.' And it's incorrect, at least in the eyes of Noble Brigham, a Brown University Class of 2024 graduate and one of the two plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit. Brigham, 23, now lives in Las Vegas, where he works as a courts reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal. During his time as a student at Brown, he freelanced for the Providence Journal and wrote for the campus newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald. Brigham asked campus police for arrest reports in December 2022 while working on a story about a man charged by Brown Police with trespassing and felony breaking and entering, after he was found sleeping in the basement of a campus dorm. Brown refused to hand over the documents, prompting Brigham to appeal to the AG's office in January 2023. Brigham no longer keeps tabs on the fallout from the arrest of the man, who had a 10-year history of run-ins with campus police, according to Brigham's reporting. But he insists access to campus police arrest reports is important. 'I didn't just file the complaint because I thought Brown was wrong in their interpretation of the records law,' Brigham said in an interview Friday. 'I also thought it was important for people to know what's going on.' Exempting Brown police from making arrests public also hides whether campus law enforcement are following through with charges on arrests — or, potentially, erasing those arrests even from internal records. 'One of the most important purposes of APRA is to make sure police agencies cannot make arrests disappear,' said Michael Bilow, a reporter with Motif Magazine and the other plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit. 'To this day, I have no legal assurance that Brown didn't do that.' Bilow first sought records for Brown University students arrested during a series of pro-Palestine sit-in protests in the wake of the Hamas attack on Gaza. An initial group of 20 students were arrested by campus police for a Nov. 8, 2023 protest, but the charges were dropped. Another 41 students were arrested for trespassing during a Dec. 11, 2023, sit-in protest, according to news reports. State law requires that Brown University police must submit any arrest reports to the Providence Police Department. But when Bilow first requested the arrest documents for the 41 students from Providence police, he was told there were no records. He had also tried to get them from campus police but never heard back. Five months later, Bilow spotted a Providence City Council post on X calling on the city solicitor to drop charges against the 41 Brown students. Bilow re-upped his request to the city, using the social media post as proof that arrests had been made and charges filed. One of the most important purposes of APRA is to make sure police agencies cannot make arrests disappear. To this day, I have no legal assurance that Brown didn't do that.' – Michael Bilow, a reporter with Motif Magazine and one of two plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit against the university Bilow eventually got the information he was asking for from the city of Providence, which admitted its error in previously telling him that there were no records. 'My understanding is that Brown Police did the 'processing' of the arrested individuals, which led to our confusion here,' a city spokesperson told Bilow in the reply, which is included in a story by Bilow on Motif's website. 'This is why Public Safety had no records of the arrest.' Samara Pinto, a spokesperson for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley's office, indicated this is not unusual. 'Brown University Public Safety reports come into the Department's possession when criminal cases involving their arrests are referred for prosecution in district court,' Pinto said in an email Monday. 'In many instances, the copy in the prosecution file may be the only one we receive.' While Bilow now has the names and charges against the 41 students, he doesn't know if anyone else was arrested, but isn't being prosecuted. That leaves him unable to confirm if others may have been charged but then had charges subsequently dropped. 'I have no proof, but I have no assurance either,' Bilow said. 'That in itself is pretty newsworthy.' A former Brown University police officer has begun to speak out about the lengths university officials are willing to go to keep information closeted within the 95-person department. Michael Greco, who worked as a patrol officer for Brown University Department of Public Safety for 18 years before leaving in August, testified in support of public records reform at a State House hearing on May 22. Greco told lawmakers the department's exemption from public records law was purposefully manipulated to hide information. On multiple occasions, he or other campus officers would be sent to handle incidents that should have been handled by Providence police, specifically because that would ensure any reports or arrests could remain private, he said. Greco has filed a workers' compensation claim against the university after leaving due to post-traumatic stress disorder, which he developed after a November 2021 shooting and bombing threat on campus. In an interview, Greco said he and other officers were sent to respond to a report of bomb threats and someone claiming they were going to 'shoot cops.' Greco said he was specifically instructed not to call in the threat on his radio so that Providence police would not hear the information and also respond. An initial report written by Greco on the day of the threat, Nov. 7, 2021, and shared with Rhode Island Current following the threats at Brown — which were ultimately not proven true — details his concerns about campus police being ill-equipped to respond to an active shooter threat. A printout also shared by Greco shows another officer modified the report two days later; the section in which Greco wrote that he was concerned about responding and was shrugged off was deleted. 'They were willing to dangle us in front of a building where a guy said he would shoot police officers in order to keep something from getting on the Providence radios and out into the public,' Greco said. 'If the primary function of Brown's police department is to take what should be public record and make it private, they are not prioritizing the safety of officers.' Clark did not respond to requests for comment on Greco's allegations. Providence police did eventually respond to the bomb and shooting threats on Nov. 7, 2021. However, the city police incident report notes the call was received at 5:21 p.m., three-and-a-half hours after the initial 1:50 p.m. call to Brown University police noted in Greco's report. There were no arrests. Brown University Department of Public Safety is also required to collect and report crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education under The Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act. The university maintains an electronic log of daily incidents, dating back to 2018, noting the date and time of each incident, its classification — larceny, burglary, extortion, etc — and whether the investigation is open, closed or turned over to Providence police. The single-line entries offer little detail, and without a formal arrest or transfer to Providence police, most of the specific information remains out of public reach. If the primary function of Brown's police department is to take what should be public record and make it private, they are not prioritizing the safety of officers. – Michael Greco, a former Brown University patrol officer who left in August 2024 Greco also alleged police would routinely doctor incident reports to avoid federal reporting requirements — vandalism became 'property damage with malicious intent,' for example. 'I don't think that there's anything more troubling than the notion that an agency that has the power to arrest somebody can keep that information about those arrests secret,' Brown said. 'That should concern anyone who cares about transparency and accountability, when any entity is given such incredible power over information.' The lawsuit asks the court to issue a judgment determining that Brown's campus police department is a public body, subject to compliance with public records laws. It also seeks court intervention to force Brown University to hand over the arrest documents requested by Bilow and Brigham within 10 days. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Boston Globe
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Brown University police should not be exempt from public records law, ACLU lawsuit claims
Related : Advertisement The lawsuit argues that Brown University's Department of Public Safety wields state-authorized police powers and therefore fits within the state Access to Public Records Act's definition of an 'agency.' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'The purpose of this action is simple,' ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Fausto Anguilla said in a statement. 'Every city and town police department in Rhode Island must provide arrest reports under APRA. Brown's police should not be an exception.' Anguilla, a former state representative, filed the lawsuit in state Superior Court against Brown University's Department of Public Safety on behalf of two journalists, after the department refused to provide them reports of arrests made by Brown officers. In 2022, Noble Brigham, then a Brown Daily Herald reporter, was investigating the story of a man who had been charged multiple times by Brown's Department of Public Safety with trespassing and breaking and entering on the Brown campus. Advertisement Brigham submitted a public records request for the arrest reports, which was initially ignored by Department of Public Safety. When the department did respond, it was to assert that the Access to Public Records Act didn't apply because Brown is a private university. In 2023, Motif Magazine reporter Michael Bilow was reporting on When Bilow filed an public records request seeking the arrest reports, Brown public safety department ignored the request. Bilow and Brigham filed complaints with Attorney General Peter F. Neronha's office. In January, his office issued an opinion, agreeing with Brown that the university was not subject to the state's Access to Public Records Act. The lawsuit Monday notes that the public records law applies to private agencies that are 'acting on behalf of and/or in place of any public agency,' and the suit claims the Brown Department of Public Safety fits that definition. 'By engaging in one of the most fundamental functions of government — the enforcement of criminal laws and exercising the power to search and seize individuals — (the Brown Department of Public Safety) is acting on behalf of and/or in place of a government agency or public body," the suit states. The lawsuit asks the judge to declare that the Brown Department of Public Safety is a public body within the meaning of Access to Public Records Act, and that it must comply with requests for arrest records and other publicly available law enforcement documents. Advertisement Bilow said, 'Experience has proven that preventing police abuses depends on full transparency under the law, and it is a civic responsibility of news reporting to keep the public aware and informed about what is done in their name.' Brigham said, 'Access to police reports is a basic public right. The public should be able to understand why police have arrested someone, and Brown's stance that its nonprofit status exempts them from the state law every municipal Rhode Island police department follows is troubling.' Brown University did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
01-06-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Highland requests more time for tornado siren reports
The Highland Fire Department is still compiling maintenance reports on allegedly faulty tornado sirens during a March storm after some residents said they didn't hear sirens at all. The Post-Tribune on April 30 filed via email an Access to Public Records Act request with the town asking for all fire inspection reports of town equipment between August 14, 2023 and April 30; and all written or electronic correspondence among Highland Fire Department members and Town Administrators about said reports during that same time. The dates capture the period immediately after Highland Fire Chief Bill Timmer died to the present. Per Indiana Public Access rules, Highland Clerk-Treasurer Mark Herak responded within 24 hours that the town had received the request. The town then had seven business days — by May 9 — to either give the Post-Tribune an idea of when it could expect the request to be filled or explain under what code it's denying it. Neither the town nor Town Attorney John Reed responded by end of business day May 9, so the Post-Tribune reached out to the town May 12 for the status of the request. On May 19, Interim Fire Chief Mike Pipta responded and said the department was 'in the process of compiling the information' and that they hoped to be finished by May 30. On Friday afternoon, Pipta said via email, 'Unfortunately, we have not finished compiling the information you requested. We will give you an update in two weeks, June 13th.' Four tornadoes ripped through Lake County the evening of March 19: two EF-0 tornadoes and one EF-1 tornado in Gary and one EF-0 tornado that hit in roughly the center of Highland. Some residents reported to the Highland Police Department that they may have heard sirens in the distance, while others didn't hear them at all, according to a HPD social media post March 21. Because of that, Highland officials conducted a siren test at noon March 22, where they discovered two of the sirens were 'faulty,' a second social media post dated March 22 said. Additionally, they discovered an issue with communication to the Lake County E-911 Center, according to the post. 'The 911 Center is working on that issue and our vendor will be out Monday morning to fix the issue on our end,' the Highland Police Department post said.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fifteen pages of public records reform. McKee's administration doesn't like any of it.
The perennial push to reform Rhode Island's public records law faces opposition from Gov. Dan McKee's administration. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Lawsuits, federal funding cuts, organizational chaos and a workload that could 'grind government to a halt' are among the dire predictions given by state agencies, including the governor's office, in response to proposed reform to Rhode Island's public records law. Advocates expected the administration to come out in force against the Access to Public Records Act reform bill this year, which is nearly identical to the iteration that died in committee in 2024. They were not wrong. A dozen state agencies, including Gov. Dan McKee's office, flooded the Senate Committee on Judiciary with letters of opposition ahead of a May 22 hearing on legislation by Sen. Lou DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat. McKee isn't budging on changes to public records law. Neither are reform advocates. To Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union and part of the ACCESS/RI coalition championing records reform, the administration's protest exposes not-so-pure intentions. 'I don't think we can give them any longer the benefit of the doubt that these objections are in good faith,' Brown said in an interview Tuesday. 'So many of them are bogus. It's a misreading of the bill that's incredibly disingenuous.' The legislation at its core aims to clarify and update the 1978 law, which was last revised in 2012. The 15-page omnibus bill encompasses 48 changes, from minor language tweaks to major updates meant to protect and expand access to affordable public information. The legislation also integrates new data sources like traffic accidents, police body-worn camera footage and text messages between officials, into what's subject to public scrutiny. Among the chief concerns by McKee's administration is a proposed requirement that public bodies 'shall' waive fees to retrieve and hand over public records when a requester can prove the records are in the public interest. The existing law says the records 'may' be provided for free if they benefit the public. State agencies defended fees as a way to recoup a portion of the substantial time and effort it takes state workers to find and collect data. The prospect of waiving fees, while simultaneously requiring state officials to document the specific legal explanation for redacted portions of documents in a 'privilege log,' threatens to 'grind government to a halt,' Jonathan Womer, Rhode Island Department of Administration director, wrote in a May 22 letter to lawmakers. Claire Richards, executive counsel for McKee's office, also took issue with this provision. 'Since every request made by a member of the public could be considered 'in the public interest' the provision could result in a fee waiver for every request,' Richards wrote in her May 22 letter. 'The ability to impose fees for the search, retrieval and redaction of documents searches is an important function in the APRA process.' Brown countered that the bill, as well as federal law under the Freedom of Information Act, offers a specific definition for what meets the public interest standard. He also debunked state agencies claims that expanding public records could violate attorney-client privilege, and expose confidential personal information for residents served through state health and human service programs. Similar privacy concerns accompanied proposed reforms meant to hold law enforcement accountable, specifying that internal investigations be subject to public disclosure, though identifying information can be redacted. Public safety officials remained vehemently opposed. 'Often, these are minor infractions for violations of policy,' Sid Wordell, executive director of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs' Association, told lawmakers during the May 22 hearing. 'If we make every single one of those available, that's going to be the next big thing on social media.' Wordell continued, 'discipline is meant to correct the behavior of the individuals we still feel are an asset to the agency.' But opponents have not offered an alternative way to incorporate internal police investigations into the state's public records law. 'All we heard when we met with them last year was 'no no no,'' said DiPalma, sponsor of the Senate bill. The House companion is led by Rep. Patricia Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat. Only two of the 16 groups representing state agencies, educational institutions, and cities and towns pitched solutions to their concerns. Jennifer Harrington, general counsel and legislative liaison for the Narragansett Bay Commission, the quasi-public agency that oversees wastewater collection and treatment for 350,000 state residents, suggested striking two pieces of contention related to posting meeting documents online ahead of time and requiring a requestor agree to extending a records fulfilment beyond the standard 20-days. Randy Rossi, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, offered amendments for each of the 10 sections of concern to local municipal officials in his May 22 letter. While John Marion, executive director for Common Cause Rhode Island, acknowledged concessions might need to be made for some type of reform to advance, he was not willing to concede all of the provisions under scrutiny. 'We're not going to disembowel the bill,' Marion said in an interview Tuesday. 'We're not going to water the bill down so much that it's meaningless just to find compromise.' Womer's letter identifies opposition to 15 individual clauses of concern, while Richards' six-page letter attacks seven provisions, some of which constitute entire sections of the 15-page piece of legislation. DiPalma said he was disappointed by the continued opposition from McKee's office, which he blamed for leading the administration-wide criticism. 'I have no facts and data to support this, but it seems like it was completely orchestrated by the governor's office,' DiPalma said in an interview Tuesday. Brown shared DiPalma's suspicions. 'I don't think it's an unreasonable assumption,' he said. Laura Hart, a spokesperson for McKee's office, acknowledged requests for comment but did not immediately provide a response Tuesday. DiPalma was also disheartened that a new section meant to assuage municipal government concerns about 'vexatious requests' — those submitted by bad actors solely to disrupt government operations — was seemingly dismissed by the governor's office, acknowledged only in a footnote of Richards' letter. The newly added section of the bill, the only change made to this year's version compared with last year, lays out a court process for chief executives of public bodies to challenge and, potentially not fulfill or be reimbursed for the cost of fulfilling, disruptive requests as determined by a Superior Court judge. But Richards wrote that forcing public bodies to initiate legal action to get out of fulfilling vexatious requests was an 'unworkable solution' requiring more time and resources than available. 'I was a little taken aback by that,' DiPalma said. 'It almost seemed like it was dismissive.' DiPalma's usual optimism and ever-insistent promise of getting his legislative priorities 'over the goal line' was noticeably absent when asked about public records reform. 'We have to be realistic about what's possible and what's probable,' DiPalma said. 'It's a tough hill to climb.' DiPalma held a kernel of hope that forthcoming meetings with Senate President Valarie Lawson and Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone, both of whom are cosponsors on the legislation, might yield progress. However, a hearing on Serpa's companion bill in the House State Elections and Government Committee has not yet been scheduled and House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has remained noncommittal. These groups and state agencies wrote to lawmakers to express concerns with proposed updates to state public records law. Peter Alviti Jr., Rhode Island Department of Transportation directer Terrence Gray, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management director Megan Jackson, legislative liaison for the Rhode Island Office of the Public Defender Dr. Jerry Larkin, Rhode Island Department of Health director Richard Leclerc, Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals director Kimberly Merolla-Brito, Rhode Island Department of Human Services director Claire Richards, executive counsel for Gov. Dan McKee's office, Wayne Salisbury Jr., Rhode Island Department of Corrections director Liz Tanner, Rhode Island Commerce secretary Thomas Verdi, Rhode Island Department of Revenue director Col. Darnell Weaver, Rhode Island Department of Public Safety director and Rhode Island State Police superintendent Jonathan Womer, Rhode Island Department of Administration director The committee also received written opposition from The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island, Narragansett Bay Commission, the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, and the town of Lincoln. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Advocates push for updated R.I. public records law, seeking access to state's crash data
Advertisement 'When government hides information like crash data from the public, it is not just advocates and journalists that suffer,' Giles said. 'It is every Rhode Islander who walks, bikes, drives, takes public transit, or relies on emergency services. It is every family seeking answers after a tragedy.' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Giles joined the legislative sponsors and advocates at a news conference in the State Library on Wednesday. 'Rhode Island should not remain a national outlier in secrecy,' he said. 'We deserve better.' The legislation is scheduled to come before the This is the third straight year that Advertisement DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, said he saw the need for greater government transparency when he chaired the Senate oversight committee and found it difficult to get certain information. Also, he said the law needs to reflect new technology such as police body-worn cameras. 'We've waited too long,' DiPalma said. 'The time to to do it is now.' The proposed changes include: Body camera footage from use-of-force incidents would be made public within 30 days. Final reports of police internal affairs investigations would be accessible to the public, with personally identifiable information redacted. 911 call recordings would be more easily available to those directly affected. All documents discussed at a public meeting must be available to the public at the time they are being discussed. Requesters could seek a public interest exemption to, or reduction of, search and retrieval fees for public records. The blanket exemption for any correspondence of or to elected officials in their official capacities would be removed, but it would keep confidential records that are not related to official business. Fines would double for 'knowing and willful' violations to $4,000 from $2,000, and fines for 'recklessly' violating the law would double to $2,000 from $1,000. No fee would be charged for the first two hours of time spent searching for and retrieving documents (up from one hour), and no charge would be allowed for the denial of a records request. While this bill aims to reduce such costs, advocates noted that DiPalma said he added one new provision to this year's bill to address concerns, raised by the That section states that, 'If a person makes a request to view or copy a public record that is part of a series of contemporaneous requests filed with the intent to disrupt government operations, the chief administrative officer of the public body may petition the Superior Court for an order to relieve the custodian of the records from fulfilling the request.' Senator Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, speaks about his bill to update the state Access to Public Records Act. Edward Fitzpatrick John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said that after the 2020 election, there was 'a coordinated effort to really gum up the works at election offices around the country by making vexatious requests, particularly about Dominion voting systems. They weren't made in good faith.' Advertisement So the new provision aims to head off such requests, Marion said. 'It's not to deal with the requests that all of us make in the public interest,' he said. The legislation has been 'We often complete oversight hearings, and we feel that information has been withheld,' Serpa said. 'The withholding of information is counterproductive to the purposes of oversight meetings in the first place.' In December, DiPalma said residents might not mention the Access to Public Records Act when a politician knocks on their door. 'But I think when you say to somebody, 'Do you want your government to be open, fair, and transparent?' Of course, absolutely. No one will say no.' Charlie Galligan, a private investigator who spoke at the news conference, said, 'No disrespect to the speaker, but that sounds kind of dismissive.' Members of the public might not have a detailed grasp of the Access to Public Records Act, he said. 'But when they consume news, they're all the beneficiary of the APRA law. When the media is prevented from access, that does negatively impact the citizenry.' Scott Pickering, president of Advertisement For example, he said the Barrington School Department lost a court case and then pursued a series of lengthy appeals. Citizens began to question how much the legal battle was costing the school department, but the district refused to release that information, saying the documents were held by an outside law firm that wasn't subject to the open records law. So this legislation would close that 'loophole,' making records public even if they are held by a third party, he said. During the news conference, DiPalma quoted the late US Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis: 'Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.' Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
