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15 Jan, 2021

Revised bill aims to stop harassment from public records requesters
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Revised bill aims to stop harassment from public records requesters

Legislature, requests

Revised bill aims to stop harassment from public records requesters

By Deborah Fisher|2021-02-02T14:40:26-06:00January 15, 2021|Categories: Legislature, requests|0 Comments

State Senator Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, is bringing back a bill to give government entities tools to stop harassment from public records requesters. A bill to give government officials tools to stop what they view as harassment through public records requests was filed this week by state Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin. The bill is similar to a version that failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee last year on a 5-4 vote, but has some key changes. After the bill failed last year, Haile asked the Advisory Committee on Open Government to review it and give suggestions. State Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, is carrying the House version. Haile plans more changes to [...]

7 Sep, 2020

Advisory committee to meet on legislation to limit ‘harassing’ requesters

By Deborah Fisher|2020-09-07T11:33:08-05:00September 7, 2020|Categories: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Legislature, requests|Tags: ACOG, harassment, legislation, public records requests, State Sen. Ferrell Haile|1 Comment

The Advisory Committee on Open Government will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday to discuss legislation that would limit public records requests from people found to be harassing the government. The meeting will be livestreamed and can be viewed by the public through the following link: https://tngov.webex.com/tngov/onstage/g.php?MTID=ebf38667b9ad074a64ca63d6e491c9ab1. Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, asked the 14-member committee to review his proposed bill that would allow a government entity to seek an injunction against a person whose behavior met a harassment definition outlined in the bill. Haile has worked on the bill for two years. He introduced it in 2019 and presented an amended version in February to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee [...]

9 Jul, 2020

Memphis police limits media requests to view public records to one journalist per day

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-02T12:17:08-05:00July 9, 2020|Categories: requests|Tags: COVID-19, excessive force complaints, inspection, Institute for Public Service Reporting, Marc Perrusquia, Memphis Police, public records requests|0 Comments

The Memphis police department is limiting journalists who want to view its public records, allowing only one media appointment per day and limiting that appointment to three hours. Mark Perrusquia learned that he could only inspect records a maximum of twice a week at the Memphis Police Department, slowing his review of five years of excessive force reports. Now, police are limiting access even further, saying they'll only allow one journalist per day. Marc Perrusquia, a longtime Memphis journalist at The Commercial Appeal and now director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis, in early June requested copies of excessive report complaints against Memphis police [...]

5 Jun, 2020

Bill would prohibit destruction of public records that are subject to pending records request

By Deborah Fisher|2020-06-05T19:41:49-05:00June 5, 2020|Categories: Legislature, records management, requests|Tags: county public records commission, Dana Beltramo, legislature, public records requests, records retention policy, State Rep. Mike Carter, State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, Times Free Press|0 Comments

The House State Government committee on Thursday approved a bill that would prevent the destruction of public records that are subject to a pending records request, paving the way for the bill to move on to a possible floor vote. State Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, presents bill that would make it unlawful to destroy public records while they are subject to a pending records request. The bill, H.B. 2578, was sponsored by state Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, who explained that a problem arose in Hamilton County last year when the Times Free Press newspaper requested records, and thereafter, the records were destroyed by the custodian before they could obtain them. [...]

23 Feb, 2020

Harassment bill fails on 5-4 vote

By Deborah Fisher|2020-02-23T16:38:31-06:00February 23, 2020|Categories: requests, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: harassment, legislation, public records requests, State Sen. Ferrell Haile, State Sen. Mike Bell|0 Comments

A bill that would allow a government entity to petition a court for an injunction against someone who was using the public records process to harass government employees failed in a Senate committee last week. Sen. Ferrell Haile, R- Gallatin. The harassment bill, sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, arose last year after reports of a man who city officials in Gallatin and others believe is abusing the process and wasting government time through multiple and voluminous requests with seemingly no purpose. Haile amended the bill, working with stakeholders including Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, which eventually supported the amended version of the bill. Haile characterized the bill as an [...]