Memphis

2 May, 2022

Journalist sues Memphis to gain access to police performance improvement plans

By |2022-05-05T14:09:42-05:00May 2, 2022|Categories: Public Records|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Marc Perrusquia, a journalist whose reporting has exposed problems in the Memphis police department, has filed a lawsuit challenging the city's denial of access to documents that would show how the city responded to a history of trouble with three officers.

9 May, 2020

Memphis news group alleges First Amendment violation over media advisory list blacklisting

By |2020-05-09T14:18:03-05:00May 9, 2020|Categories: Journalism|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

Nonprofit online news organization MLK50 in Memphis has told a federal judge overseeing a consent decree against the city that the city has violated its journalists' First Amendment rights and the court order by repeatedly refusing to add its editors to the city's media advisory list. The city of Memphis has refused to add MLK50 founder and editor Wendi Thomas to the media advisory list after taking her off in 2019. The city has complained she is not "objective" when it comes to her coverage of the mayor. In a letter written on May 4, attorney Paul McAdoo told U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla that the city of Memphis [...]

9 Apr, 2020

Memphis ordered to pay attorney’s fees for violating public records law over traffic accident reports

By |2020-04-09T12:54:36-05:00April 9, 2020|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , |1 Comment

Memphis and Nashville have both lost public records lawsuits over the past two years in which they were found to willfully violate the public records law in not releasing traffic accident report information or delaying release. Combined, the cities had to pay more than $234,690 in attorney's fees and court costs to Bradley Jetmore, who brought the litigation. (Photo, public domain via Wikimedia) The City of Memphis in March was ordered to pay $107,687 in attorney's fees in a public records case in which it was found to willfully violate the law in redacting public information from traffic accident reports. It was the second case won by Bradley Jetmore involving [...]

16 Nov, 2018

Memphis considers using code names for companies getting economic development incentives

By |2018-11-16T11:47:08-06:00November 16, 2018|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

The Economic and Development Growth Engine Board for Memphis (EDGE) is seeking at Attorney General's opinion on whether it can use code names to keep secret from the public the identity of companies before it votes to award the companies government cash grants and other economic development incentives. Al Bright chairman of the Memphis Economic Development and Growth Engine, said if using code names for companies when voting on cash grants and incentives instead of publicly disclosing identities would encourage more businesses to come to Memphis, "by all means, we need to do it." The attorney for the board told the Commercial Appeal (Companies seeking tax breaks from [...]

15 Jun, 2018

Are addresses and phone numbers in accident reports confidential?

By |2020-11-19T12:31:06-06:00June 15, 2018|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

Are address and phone numbers in accident reports confidential? A Memphis judge on June 6 said no in Bradley Jetmore v. City of Memphis, affirming that such information is public record and should be accessible to the public. The case originated after the City of Memphis in November 2017 stopped allowing public access to the reports and specifically to the driver information in the report. Doug Pierce with King & Ballow Memphis, like other cities, have for years provided public access to accident reports. But in October 2017, it was sued in federal court (Price v. City of Memphis), alleging that it was violating the federal Driver Privacy Protection [...]

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