Month: September 2024

Source: United States Department of Justice

President Obama and Attorney General Holder emphasized in their FOIA Memoranda the importance of agencies working with FOIA requesters “in a spirit of cooperation.”  A key element of that cooperation is establishing and maintaining good communication with requesters.  In 2010, before the first anniversary of the issuance of Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) issued guidance entitled The Importance of Good Communication with FOIA Requesters.  That guidance addressed several ways in which agencies could improve their communication practices. 

One of the topics addressed in OIP’s 2010 guidance was the use of  what is known as a “still-interested” inquiry, i.e., when an agency asks a requester whether he or she remains interested in the continued processing of their request.  OIP’s 2010 guidance advised agencies to be “mindful of the manner in which such inquiries are made,” and to afford requesters a reasonable amount of time to indicate their continued interest.

Today, OIP has released new guidance designed to further improve the way “still-interested” inquiries are utilized by agencies.  As noted in this new guidance:

“While use of ‘still-interested’ inquiries is an understandable way to help ensure that agency resources are appropriately spent processing requests for records where the requester remains interested in receiving the documents, it is equally important that requesters are not in any way disadvantaged by their use.”

The new guidance outlines a series of procedures that agencies should use when inquiring whether a requester remains interested in the continued processing of his or her request. 

These include:

• Reasonable Grounds to Make “Still-Interested” Inquiry in the First Instance – any “still-interested” inquiry should be limited to those situations where the agency has a reasonable basis to conclude that  the  requester’s interest in the records may have changed;
   
• Limiting the Number of Times “Still-Interested” Inquiries are Made – absent good cause, agencies should not inquire more than once whether a requester is still interested in the request;
   
• Using Requester’s Preferred Method of Communicating – email or telephone are often the most efficient ways to communicate with requesters and should be used as the default;
   
• Providing Requesters with a Reasonable Amount of Time and Method to Respond to “Still-Interested” Inquiries – the time period to allow requesters to respond to “still-interested” inquiries should be no shorter than thirty (30) working days and a simple response over the telephone, a reply to an email, or the checking of a box on a self-addressed form are all examples of easy methods that agencies can make available to requesters so that they can most readily respond to the inquiry; and
   
• Ensuring Requesters are Not Disadvantaged – in the event  a requester responds to a “still-interested” inquiry within a reasonable time after the deadline has passed, agencies should simply reopen the request and place it back into the agency’s queue in the same position it would have been had the “still-interested” inquiry not been sent.

Agencies should review their procedures on the use of “still-interested” inquiries to ensure they are in conformity with this new guidance.  OIP has prepared an implementation checklist to assist agencies in doing so. 

The full text of the guidance and its accompanying checklist, along with all other guidance issued by OIP, is available on our guidance page.   

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Thank you, U.S. Attorney [Joyce] Vance, for that kind introduction; for your lifelong commitment to public service; and for your exceptional work on behalf of the people of this community.  It’s a privilege to join so many law enforcement officers, student and faith leaders, and community officials as we take this opportunity to discuss the critical work underway here in Birmingham and in cities across the country.  I’d like to thank Chief of Police [A.C.] Roper for welcoming me to Birmingham and for his exemplary leadership of the Birmingham Police Department.  I’d also like to thank Priscilla Cooper, President of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, for hosting us this afternoon and for the wonderful tour of the institute.  And I’d like to thank everyone who helped make today’s event possible.

As you all know, our country has recently witnessed a series of deeply distressing events in cities experiencing a breakdown in trust between law enforcement officers and the citizens we serve.  Each new tragedy has weighed heavily on our hearts and put a spotlight on deeply-rooted issues we are still confronting as a nation.  That spotlight has in some ways helped us make progress.  Important conversations have begun within our communities and across our nation and groups that have felt marginalized are standing up and speaking out as never before.  These are important developments.  But in order to keep healing the rifts that divide us, we must continue to work together, to be constructive and assume good faith on all sides and to seek out new ideas and fresh approaches. 

Restoring essential trust where it has eroded is one of my top priorities as Attorney General and I want you all to know that the Department of Justice will do everything we can to help.  That’s why I am convening roundtable discussions like this one – beginning last month in Cincinnati and continuing in the coming weeks in East Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and Richmond, California.  Through conversations like this one, I want to highlight the innovative ways you all are strengthening police-community relations and to think about how the steps you’re taking can be translated into other jurisdictions.  I am hopeful that these vital conversations will help guide the transformative change we would all like to see nationwide. 

I’m here in Birmingham because this city’s law enforcement and elected leaders understand that progress requires us to work closely together – across issues, across backgrounds and across neighborhoods – to make sure the entire community thrives.  From the police department’s citizen’s police academy – which gives individuals from all walks of life a close-up view of police work and a deeper appreciation for its challenges – to the city’s demonstrated interest in using new technology to promote accountability and trust – Birmingham’s leaders have shown unwavering dedication to community-oriented policies that advance public safety, reduce crime and foster mutual trust and respect.  I’m also here in Birmingham because this community understands the need for commitment, engagement and ongoing communication with police and government on these important issues.  You have taken advantage of your unique history and used it to come together on this and so many other important issues.

The Department of Justice is committed to supporting you and your work at every step, which is why I am pleased that Birmingham is one of six pilot sites for the national initiative for building community trust and justice.  The initiative is a long-term effort to foster lasting ties and enduring trust between law enforcement officials and the citizens they serve.  By focusing on three core concepts – advancing procedural justice, reducing implicit bias and supporting reconciliation – the initiative is intended to strengthen community policing, ensure that people are treated fairly and put longstanding tensions and misconceptions finally to rest.  In Birmingham and our other pilot sites, we will work with local leaders to develop an overall plan for progress, as well as specific strategies tailored to each city’s needs.  We will lend guidance to help pilot sites implement data-driven methods to evaluate their success.  And we will use the results in each pilot city to identify and define best practices that will steer efforts nationwide for years to come.

This is vitally important work.  You know from your own experience that when police and residents share strong, reliable and resilient relationships, residents are more likely to help with investigations and police will more often hear from victims and witnesses of crime.  And when officers receive the tools, training and support they need, they are better able to serve their neighbors and constituents safely and effectively.  With the bold steps you are taking in Birmingham to realize those goals, you have put yourselves at the leading edge of what it will take to keep the American people safe in the 21^st century.

I want you to know that the Department of Justice – and the entire Obama Administration – will stay engaged on these issues and stand alongside you not just now, but for the long term.  We know how much work is ahead of us.  We understand we face difficult challenges.  I have no illusions that these issues will be solved overnight. But from what I have seen and heard in my visit today, I am confident that this city will provide a shining example of what we can achieve when dedicated public servants, passionate community members and  devoted law enforcement officers come together to create the stronger, safer, more united community that all Americans deserve.  I look forward to working with you in the days and months ahead and I want to thank you all, once again, for your partnership, your leadership and your justly renowned hospitality.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

As a part of the Second Open Government National Action Plan’s commitment to modernizing FOIA, OIP launched a new series of workshops focused on agency best practices in FOIA administration.  Next week OIP is hosting the second event in this Best Practices Workshop series on the topic of proactive disclosures and making posted information more useful for the public.  We are pleased to open this event to interested members of the public as well agency personnel.  

Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines encourage agencies to “readily and systematically post information online in advance of any public request.”  While increasing their proactive disclosures, agencies are also finding new and creative ways of making the information they post online easier to find and more useful to the public.  At this event, a panel of representatives from the Office of Science & Technology Policy, OIP, the Department of State, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will share their success stories and strategies on improving their proactive disclosures. 

As agencies continue to make progress in this area, it is important that they interact with the public in order to learn their needs and better understand how they access government information online.  To further that exchange, OIP is opening this event in the Best Practices Workshop series to the public. The details for next week’s event are:

The first event in this series focused on how agencies can reduce backlogs of FOIA requests and improve timeliness, and the panel of agency representatives identified a number of common approaches that they had each taken to achieve success in this important area.  As this series continues, we hope that FOIA professionals continue to learn from one another and leverage the successes of others in their own organizations for the overall benefit of FOIA administration across the government.

If you are interested in attending next week’s event, you can register by e-mailing your name and phone number to OIP’s Training Officer at DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov with the subject line “July Best Practices Workshop.”  As space for this meeting is limited, registration is required to attend.  If you have any questions regarding this event or the Best Practices series, please contact OIP’s Training Officer at (202) 514-3642.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Last month, agency FOIA professionals and representatives from the FOIA requester community gathered together at OIP for the most recent FOIA Requester Roundtable.  The topic of this meeting was how agencies provide estimated dates of completion to FOIA requesters.  The roundtable focused on the statutory requirements of the FOIA to assign tracking numbers to requests and provide status information to requesters, including:

• Subsection (a)(7)(A) – requiring agencies to assign an individualized tracking number to requests that will take longer than ten days to process, and
• Subsection (a)(7)(B) – requiring agencies to establish a telephone line or Internet service that requesters can use to inquire about the status of their requests using the request’s assigned tracking number. 

After discussing the legal requirements of these provisions during the meeting, attendees shared a number of best practices for calculating estimated dates of completions, methods for providing this information to requesters, and the importance of good communication between agencies and the requester. OIP has previously issued guidance to agencies on the FOIA’s requirements to assign tracking numbers and provide status information for requests and today, OIP is issuing an updated version of that guidance.  This guidance further clarifies agencies’ responsibilities under these statutory provisions, and can be found on the Guidance page of our website.

For further information about training and outreach opportunities from OIP, please visit our Training page.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Over the last five years, agency Chief Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Officer Reports have provided detailed descriptions of agency efforts to improve FOIA administration in five key areas addressed by Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines.  As part of a five-part series which started during Sunshine Week 2014, OIP continues to highlight some of the successes in these five key areas as reported by agencies in their 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Reports. 

Improving Timeliness in Responding to Requests and Reducing Backlogs

Both the President and the Attorney General have emphasized the importance of improving timeliness in responding to requests.  In his FOIA Memorandum issued on his first full day in office, President Obama directed agencies to “act promptly” when responding to requests.  Attorney General Holder similarly emphasized in his FOIA Guidelines that “[t]imely disclosure of information is an essential component of transparency . . . [and that] [l]ong delays should not be viewed as an inevitable and insurmountable consequence of high demand.”  For the 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, agencies were asked to provide detailed information on their average processing times for simple requests and their efforts to reduce backlogs and close their ten oldest requests, appeals, and consultations.  Those agencies that had a request backlog of over 1,000, and did not reduce that backlog, were also required to provide a plan for achieving backlog reduction in the year ahead.  Likewise, agencies that did not close their ten oldest requests, appeals, or consultations were required to describe their plans for closing those requests, appeals or consultations by the next fiscal year. 

Because of the strong correlation between the type of request that is made and the ability of the agency to respond to that request more quickly, in 2012, OIP established a milestone that addresses whether the agency overall responded to requests in its simple track within an average of twenty working days or less.  Agencies were once again required to report on this metric in their 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Reports.  Sixty-three agencies, including seven of the fifteen cabinet level agencies, reported that they were either able to process their simple-track requests in an average of twenty-working days or less, or if they did not utilize multi-track processing, they were able to process all of their non-expedited requests within that average timeframe. 

With regard to request backlogs, fifty-five agencies reported that they were either able to reduce the number of requests in their backlog at the end of Fiscal Year 2013 or they had no backlog to reduce.  Additionally, four agencies reported no change in their request backlog, and twelve agencies reported a slight increase of up to five backlogged requests.  Twenty-eight agencies experienced a backlog increase of more than five requests.  Notably, however, seventy-three agencies were able to maintain a small request backlog of 100 requests or less, with twenty-nine of these agencies reporting no backlog at all.

For administrative FOIA appeals, seventy-three agencies reported that they were either able to reduce the number of appeals in their backlog at the end of Fiscal Year 2013 or they had no backlog to reduce.  Three agencies had no change in their appeals backlog, and fifteen agencies reported a slight increase of up to five backlogged appeals.  While eight agencies reported a backlog increase of over five appeals, a total of eighty-two agencies maintained a backlog of twenty or less appeals.

As with previous years, agencies that experienced an increase in their request or appeal backlogs explained the causes that contributed to those increases in their 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Reports. Some of the common factors reported by agencies included an increase in the number of incoming requests, loss of FOIA staff, and an increase in the complexity of the requests or appeals received by the agency.   

A critical element of the government’s efforts to reduce backlogs and answer the President’s and Attorney General’s call to provide timely disclosures of information is closing the ten oldest pending requests, appeals, and consultations at each agency every year.  Sixty-eight agencies reported that they were either able to close all ten of their oldest requests from Fiscal Year 2012 by the end of Fiscal Year 2013, or they had no ten oldest to close.  With regard to appeals, eighty agencies were either able to close their ten oldest pending appeals or they had no ten oldest to close.  Finally, ninety-three agencies were able to close their ten oldest pending consultations or they continued to maintain no pending consultations at the end of the fiscal year. 

Agencies were also asked to report in their 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Reports on whether they have a system in place for providing requesters substantive interim responses when appropriate.  In the spirit of providing more timely disclosures of information, OIP issued guidance in 2010 to agencies encouraging the use of interim releases whenever a request involves a voluminous amount of material or a search in multiple locations is required.  The vast majority of agencies reported that they did have a process in place for making interim responses.  Additionally, each agency reported an estimate of the number of cases in their backlog for which an interim response was provided. 

This is just a snapshot of agencies’ efforts to improve timeliness and reduce backlogs.  OIP encourages both agencies and the public to review the individual 2014 Chief FOIA Officer Reports issued by agencies for a more comprehensive view of agency progress in this area. 

As with previous years, this summer OIP will once again publish its assessment of agencies’ implementation of the President’s and Attorney General’s FOIA Memoranda based on agency Annual and Chief FOIA Officer Reports.  Be sure to continue reading FOIA Post for more information on the Department’s continuing efforts to improve both transparency and understanding of the FOIA.

You can read previous posts in this series on FOIA Post (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV).