Indiana law requires public agencies to disclose many records to the general public through electronic records requests. But recently, a group of Indiana University graduate journalism students found compliance with the law is far from complete.
“Sadly, I always expect that there will be problems with public access,” said Gerry Lanosga, an assistant professor at the IU Media School. “I wish I didn’t have to say that.”
Lanosga advised three graduate students who requested records from 90 public agencies in 30 Indiana counties. Eighteen years ago, the professor (and current president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, or ICOG), participated in a nationwide audit of public records. The new project comes on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the ICOG group’s creation.
The new project focuses primarily on electronic access, or digital elements such as asking to have electronic copies of records, either by taking pictures with cellphone cameras or having documents sent by email.
That adds another layer of potential pitfalls for requesters,” said Lanosga.
The students began by emailing commissioners’ offices, sheriff’s departments and health departments in each of the 30 randomly selected counties. According to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act, agencies are required to at least respond (even if they don’t send a record) within seven days of the initial contact.
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