The police department in Boscawen, N.H. have started the practice of posting people’s mugshots on Facebook.

One person claims to have lost a job when the police posted his name and mugshot on the social network.

Jacob Hooper is a local teenager who was arrested for underage drinking. He found out that his mugshot was posted on Facebook from friends who saw it online.

Now he is worried about how this digital public record could affect everything from college admissions to future employment.

The mugshots are posted on Facebook along with some arrest record details as well as the person’s court date.

The police department’s Facebook page was launched several months ago. The Boscawen Police department also posts events, unsolved crimes and arrests on the site.

The practice has outraged some local people, but the police department says that the arrest records and mugshots are all public records and therefore fair to use on a public site like Facebook.

The Boscawen chief of police notes that the mugshots and arrest record information are removed from Facebook after each case is resolved.

However, with server storage and the ability to copy and save digital information online, we all know that once digital, always digital.

You can view the Boscawen Police Department’s Facebook page here.

An Ohio man has won a $1.4 million dollar lawsuit against the city of Bucyrus, OH.

The suit was filed against the city over public records that were destroyed from 16 years ago.

Edwin Davila filed the lawsuit in June 2009 because the city of Bucyrus could not provide 9-1-1 tape recordings he’d requested from February 1994 through December 1997, while doing research into 9-1-1 call systems.

Judge David C. Faulkner sided with Davila over the 31 destroyed recordings that were at the center of the suit. The recordings included over 11,000 public records that were destroyed due to repeated use.

Davila’s suit sought either the public records he had originally requested or damages of $1,000 for each record withheld, plus a civil forfeiture of $1,000 for each recording, original and backup, that he was not given.

Davila capped his claim to only 1,409 of the public records requested.

Bucyrus police Chief Ken Teets, claims the police department was not legally required to keep the recordings for such a lengthy time period.

The mayor of Bucyrus stated that the city will appeal the decision and said that Davila was taking advantage of a loophole in public record laws, noting that Davila has filed similar suits on other cities.

Davila is a former attorney from Stark County, OH.

[ Source: MansfieldNewsJournal.com ]

The Naples Daily News will co-sponsor a public seminar on Florida’s public record laws in September 2010 inform people about the state’s open records and open meetings laws.

The First Amendment Foundation and the Florida Bar Media & Communications Committee produce the Florida public records seminars that are held throught the state.

These organizations also produce an annual guidebook called “Government-In-The-Sunshine Manual” that explains Florida’s public records and meetings laws, rules for public meetings and what fees state and local government can charge for public records requests.

The seminar will start at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010. Cost and registration information will be made public next month.

Naples News

Millions of California public records have been destroyed over the past 10 years by counties and cities with little or no oversight on the process.

Most of the public records shredding occurs under policies enacted to shield county and city governments from lawsuits.

Although digital data storage has become cheaper, California counties, cities and other government agencies continue to shred public records that could shed light on the activities of public officials.

Some of the shredded records include handwritten notes that explain reasons for official decisions.

In addition, letters, expense records, audit records, employee records, government studies, meeting agendas, government press releases and official travel records have been destroyed under this fast and loose policy.

Even the official authorization records to destroy the public records have been shredded.

State level employees have even destroyed major criminal records.

After the murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King from San Diego, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had to put a stop to the practice of destroying the parole records of convicted sex offenders.

Until the girl’s murder, the California Department of Corrections only saved sex offender parole records for a year after the convict finished parole. King’s killer had been a paroled sex offender.

Not all public records in California can be destroyed so easily.

California laws mandate that local governments maintain public records for at least two years.

In addition, important documents like adoption records, criminal convictions, property title records, minutes of meetings, ordinances and general court documents must be kept permanently.

California public records are mostly destroyed in line with state policies that were written to protect counties, cities and government agencies from lawsuits.

However, a side effect of these policies is that wrongdoing by public officials and government employees can be covered up as well.

One anonymous government employee, who works directly with California public records and state shredding policies, stated: “It’s the legal issue. It’s about not having records if you get sued.”

California cities are required by law to publicly disclose which public records will be shredded by putting the issue on city council agendas.

However, the general counsel for Californians Aware, said these announcement are often hidden in with many other items on the consent calendar and the vote to destroy public records is usually done without debate.

Oversight controls on the destruction of public records seem to vary widely by city and county.

One city employee said that staff do not review the contents of each public record to make sure no unauthorized records are shredded.

However, a government employee in another California city stated that she and other staff review every individual record before documents are approved by the city’s legal counsel for destroying.

[ Source: VoiceOfOC.org ]

A test bill in the U.S. Senate would mandate that federal government publish all public records on the internet.

The proposed bill does not change what is classified as public records, it just requires agencies to post those records online that they are already responsible for.

The bill would provide faster access to public records at little or no cost. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Jon Tester, says it would eliminate the need for people to search stored print documents and the long wait for a public record requests to be completed.

Exceptions to what records could be posted online would be determined by current Freedom of Information Act rules. Such records currently include classified military documents, investigation records for law enforcement and personnel records. Restricted records would be kept off the Internet or be redacted to meet FOIA standards.

More federal departments and agencies are already putting their public records on the Internet.

First Amendment attorney Mike Meloy, thinks the bill could pave the way for an online directory of government records. A searchable federal records directory could reveal public information that people didn’t even know existed.

Under the bill, only executive branch agencies would be required to post public records online.

Legislative and judicial branches would get recommendations from a public records advisory board, but they would not be required to act on them.

Critics say this is one of the bill’s shortcomings, noting that Congress routinely tries to exempt itself from Freedom of Information Act mandates.

[ Source: Missoulian.com ]