query: getting government data

[colist at comm-org.wisc.edu]

[ed:  please feel welcomed to copy COMM-ORG with responses to Dwight's 
query.  A bit from me below.]

From: Dwight Hines <dwight.hines at gmail.com>

Obtaining accurate information in some towns is a real problem.
What are others doing to get good data?

dh

I apologize that the letter formatting is out to lunch.
====================

Dwight Hines
150 Nesmith Ave.
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
904-829-1507

January 19, 2006

Officer T. Clements, Public Information Officer, or the Public Records
Custodian,
St. Augustine Police Department
St. Augustine, Florida 32084

Dear Officer Clements:

The attached email is a true copy of an email sent to you on December
13, 2005, requesting a copy of a map of the zones used by the St.
Augustine Police Department.   As you can see by the content, it is
the second request.  This, then, is the third request for the specific
map of police zones, pursuant to P.L. 119, F.S.

Please take this letter as a formal demand for a legible,
interpretable and current copy of the police zone map used by the St.
Augustine Police Department in St. Augustine, pursuant to P.L. 119,
F.S.  If there has been a change in the police zones in the two years,
please enclose a copy of the maps of the old police zones.

Failure of you to comply with P.L. 119, F.S., by not providing the
map(s) requested to me within five working days from the date of this
letter will result in a civil suit being filed against the City of St.
Augustine and the City of St. Augustine Police Department in the
Circuit Court of St. Johns County.  The City of St. Augustine and the
City of St. Augustine Police Department are liable for any and all
costs and fees of such a suit.

If you have any questions, or would like for me to come by and pick up
the copies of the map(s), please call me or email me.  Email is my
preferred way of communications.  If the map(s) are available in a
portable document format and are not larger than 1 megabyte, you could
email them to me as attachments.

Because the City of St. Augustine has a poor record in responding to
P.L. 119, F.S., requests, please note that if future requests are not
complied with in an adequate, complete and appropriate manner, the
likely result will be an action being filed against the City of St.
Augustine and the City of St. Augustine Police Department.

Sincerely,



Dwight E. Hines

Copy:    Honorable Jim Wilson, Attorney, City of St. Augustine
    Honorable Pat Gleason, General Counsel, Attorney General of Florida
    ACLU, Florida
    NAACP, Florida
    Stetson Kennedy, Stetson Kennedy Foundation, Beluthahatchee
    Indy Media Groups: Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Washington, D.C.
    Reporters' Committee for a Free Press, State and National FOIA Group
    Honorable Charles D. Ferguson, Associate, de la O, Marko, Magolnick 
& Leyton

*******************************

[ed:  It is often the case the officials refuse (passively or actively) 
to comply with mandated information accessibility.  Sometimes it is 
because they are afraid of how people will use the information.  
Sometimes (and more and more often) it is because they lack the staff 
capacity to make the information available.  One of the first things I 
try to do in such cases is build personal relationships to find out 
whether it is a staffing issue.  If it is, then I can sometimes offer 
myself or student assistance in exchange for information.  If it is 
political blockage, then it is often necessary to turn the information 
request into an organizing campaign.  I've known many groups who have 
started with a larger issue that required government information, and 
then when they've found access to that information blocked, have shifted 
their energies to doing actions on the information targets.]