Washington lawmakers want to regulate license plate readers
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Washington state lawmakers next year hope to rein in law enforcement’s use of automated license plate readers amid revelations federal immigration authorities are using the data. The readers are mounted everywhere from street poles to police patrol cars. They take pictures of vehicles and use artificial intelligence to analyze the data. Police can […]
Washington House adds to list of government transparency assaults, auto-deletion
Our state Legislature’s march toward secrecy is speeding up, despite lawsuits, massive public outcry and even a ruling that was largely against them from the state Supreme Court. In the latest move against government transparency, the public records officer of the Washington House of Representatives sent an internal email in July to House members outlining […]
Op-Ed: Government records belong to the public
The Washington Public Records Act (PRA), passed into State Law by citizens’ initiative in 1972, allows the public to inspect the records that elected officials create as part of doing the people’s business. That includes letters, emails, phone logs, meeting minutes and other documents submitted to the legislature and created by the elected representatives at […]
