Transparency

By Zach Despart The Texas Tribune Originally published Aug. 1, 2022 More than a dozen news organizations filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday, accusing the agency of unlawfully withholding public records related to the May school shooting in Uvalde. The organizations — which include The Texas Tribune and its partner ProPublica and other local, state and national newsrooms — have each filed requests under the Texas Public Information Act for information detailing the response by various authorities, including law enforcement, to the massacre. DPS has refused to release records in response to these requests, even [...]

By Paul Flahive Texas Public Radio Originally published July 25, 2022 Two years ago, Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy Brandin Moran killed Jesus Benito Garcia in a rain of gunfire while a sergeant with the Elmendorf Police Department looked on. TPR requested body cam footage for both officers in an attempt to answer questions around Moran’s use of deadly force and the significant differences in narratives between Garcia’s family and law enforcement of what transpired. But both the county and the city of Elmendorf are fighting to keep the footage confidential. Read the full story here.

By Caroline Ghisolfi Austin American-Statesman Originally published July 15, 2022 Newsrooms across the country are waiting on the Texas attorney general’s office to decide if records that could reveal crucial information about law enforcement’s botched response to the Uvalde school shooting should be released. But if the office's track record with such cases is any indication, there could be little chance that many of the records will be released any time soon. An American-Statesman investigation into the agency's handling of more than 240,000 public records disputes over Attorney General Ken Paxton's nearly eight-year tenure reveals that his office has increasingly blocked the [...]