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2 weeks ago | 
orlandoweekly.com | Dillon Bergin |Kelly Kauffman |Beryl Lipton
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illustration by Hannah Diaz for Electronic Frontier Foundation
You'll wait a long time for some government agencies to fulfill legally mandated records requests.
The public’s right to access government information is constantly under siege across the United States, from both sides of the political aisle.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin
MuckRock readers told us where to look for police disciplinary files in more than 20 states across the country. We’re kicking off 2025 and getting those requests rolling. In each state, we’re going to some district attorneys and asking them to provide us with materials they hold on police misconduct: Any and all lists, spreadsheets or other organized datasets that detail potential or substantiated allegations of misconduct and/or impeached or impeachable testimony, created under Brady v.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin
We want to know more about how federal agencies are using AI initiatives in the FOIA process, described in their yearly Chief FOIA Officer Reports. We’re asking them for the docs. We’ve filed requests to several agencies for documents related to AI testing in their FOIA offices, including contracts with third party vendors and assessments or audits of the programs so far. To follow along as agencies respond, you can check out our AI in FOIA page, home to all the requests, articles and updates.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin
The results are in: According to their own reports, some federal agencies are already testing AI in their FOIA offices. Many more are already using machine learning functions baked into current document search and discovery tools or plan to make use of AI in the future.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin
Our team of reporters has obtained over 27,000 pages of police disciplinary files in New York state. We want your help in liberating more. Behind the Badge, a collaboration between MuckRock, New York Focus and a team of reporters, is organizing and releasing previously unpublished disciplinary files of police in New York.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
muckrock.com | Kelly Kauffman |Dillon Bergin
While the public casts their votes for the next president, federal agencies have been busy at work preparing for the transition. And in the process, they’re creating a lot of documents that you can request. One of the most important pieces of the presidential transition process is a program run by the General Services Administration (GSA).
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin
This article was originally published in SEJournal. Requesting public records, or information and documents from the government, can seem like exactly the type of thing a freelancer shouldn’t spend time on. You may not know what to request or how. You may not get the documents. And that’s just the start. If you do file a request, you may or may not have to bother a public information officer, it may or may not cost you, and in the end, you may or may not even have a story.
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Oct 6, 2024 | 
sej.org | Dillon Bergin
The MuckRock team brainstorms at a recent retreat. Photo: Courtesy Dillon Bergin. Freelance Files: Public Records Bring Independent Reporting to the Next LevelBy Dillon BerginRequesting public records, or information and documents from the government, can seem like exactly the type of thing a freelancer shouldn’t spend time on. You may not know what to request or how. You may not get the documents. And that's just the start.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin
Have you ever wondered whether an agency was using AI to search for responsive documents, or redact the documents your request returned? The answer to your question could be tucked into over 100 reports submitted to the Attorney General in the last two years. As generative AI found its way into almost every industry in 2023, senior FOIA officials had to answer a question that they hadn’t the year before: “Does your agency currently use any technology to automate record processing?
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
muckrock.com | Dillon Bergin |Kelly Kauffman
Reporters for MuckRock and the Cicero Independiente received the Victor K. McElheny Award at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their “Air We Breathe” series this weekend. The Cicero Independiente team also spoke in a panel discussion on the future of local and regional journalism, and discussed their reporting process. The investigative series was a first-of-its-kind analysis of Cicero’s air quality and involved installing air quality monitored by the Cicero Independiente and MuckRock.
