Release to One, Release to All
A ‘release to one, release to all’ federal initiative pilot program will be rolled out in the next 6 months by a handful of federal agencies. Under the initiative any member of the public will presumably have access to the result of almost any FOIA request to the participating agencies. A few journalists have expressed concern over the idea , some in fear investigative stories will be harder to write, others concerned that the public will now have access to a every single FOIA they file. Some journalists suggested a small head start for the original FOIA requester would be fair. This line of thinking doesn’t resonate well with the premise of open data. Especially open crime data. However, this thinking is similar to what is happening with crime data and crime mapping vendors. Crime mapping vendors across the country are regularly granted access to a more up-to-date crime data feed than the public. In Durham, NC the vendor gets a more up-to-date feed than the Du...