Unregistered
04-21-2017, 02:01 AM
FDLE, the agency that investigates Sunshine Law violations for Public Records violations, has shown that they are non-responsive to requests and are not willing to provide any further information provided for the requests they have.
In visiting FDLE's website, FDLE provides a guide to requests and states that requests can be submitted by phone, email, or fax. A request sent by email will generate an automated response, but on several of our requests FDLE has been completely non-responsive after the automated response.
Does this seem right? Of course not. Now we know that when FDLE issues a subpoena for timely information to a bank or business, they request that the business give them the information in a timely manner or face contempt of court. This adds a lot of expense, inconvenience, and can even interrupt a business while they work on the request. While FDLE is willing to hold others to this standard, they do not feel they have to comply with public records requests of others to them.
What is the purpose of the Sunshine Laws? To ensure transparency of State Government. Does FDLE care about it's own transparency while it investigates other Agencies who are suspected of non-compliance? You could argue that FDLE doesn't.
Perhaps those that are being investigated by FDLE need to do a request to see how responsive FDLE is themselves to public records requests.
In visiting FDLE's website, FDLE provides a guide to requests and states that requests can be submitted by phone, email, or fax. A request sent by email will generate an automated response, but on several of our requests FDLE has been completely non-responsive after the automated response.
Does this seem right? Of course not. Now we know that when FDLE issues a subpoena for timely information to a bank or business, they request that the business give them the information in a timely manner or face contempt of court. This adds a lot of expense, inconvenience, and can even interrupt a business while they work on the request. While FDLE is willing to hold others to this standard, they do not feel they have to comply with public records requests of others to them.
What is the purpose of the Sunshine Laws? To ensure transparency of State Government. Does FDLE care about it's own transparency while it investigates other Agencies who are suspected of non-compliance? You could argue that FDLE doesn't.
Perhaps those that are being investigated by FDLE need to do a request to see how responsive FDLE is themselves to public records requests.