Who: Sixty-five employees and volunteers from 31 newspaper and broadcast news organizations, trained and coordinated by Californians Aware, a Sacramento-based public interest organization.
What: A systematic survey of the openness of law enforcement agencies to sharing information about themselves with citizens in their local communities, including but not limited to their compliance with state public information law.
When: Visits conducted on December 4, 2006, with disclosures of information often extended through the end of the year.
Where: Two hundred sixteen agencies in 30 of California’s 58 counties, from San Diego to Siskiyou: 184 police and sheriff’s departments and 32 California Highway Patrol area offices. The audit is believed to be the largest of its kind in the nation to date.
Why: To document and compare the relative openness of law enforcement agencies to the public scrutiny that is the right of every Californian, especially when those asking about crimes, arrests and other facts are not representatives of the news media. Also to answer the question: Do those charged with enforcing the law know and heed the laws requiring open government? For the past several decades, corporations in the retail and hospitality sectors, and even some health clinics, have increasingly used “secret” or “mystery” shoppers — trained observers sent by market research firms in the guise of patrons or patients — to report back to the company on such realities as the knowledge, professionalism and customer skills of its public contact staff. See, for example, “Secret Shoppers Help Businesses,” http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/020700/abc_secret.shtml. Audits of public agencies’ public information practices are simply one variation of this approach — but unlike the business services, they are provided at no cost to government or to the taxpayer.
Read More Background
Audit Methodology and Background Information.
 Individual Agency Reports
Search our database for reports on specific agencies.
Findings and Conclusions
Findings and Conclusions .
Findings and Conclusions: Chart
Audit Analysis
View a statistical breakdown of the results.
Law Enforcement Top 10
Read the Top 10 reasons why law enforcement information should be open to every person
President’s Message
Read what our President has to say about this audit.
Tell Us What You Think
Use our message board to leave us your feedback about this audit.
California Police Chiefs Association Letter
Read the letter distributed by the CPCA during our audit.
Agency Reaction
Read the agency reaction and our response.
News Coverage
Watch video and read news coverage of this project.
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