News & Commentary

There is significant public interest in the requested records. The City’s decision to prevent 22Gz from performing at Lit Lounge constitutes a prior restraint on speech, which may have been unconstitutional.

Interceding in a case raising significant issues involving government transparency in environmental disputes, several organizations filed a “friend of the court” brief in the RI Supreme Court in a long-standing controversy involving the proposed expansion of Champlin’s Marina on Block Island.

A coalition of open government organizations has called on Governor McKee to reinstate an executive order allowing remote meetings of public bodies while requiring livestreaming and remote public participation.

Is the R.I. Department of Labor and Training (DLT) planning to use facial recognition technology to process unemployment claims? The agency doesn’t want the public to know, so the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed an open records lawsuit to find out. The suit is in response to the DLT’s refusal to provide the ACLU any documents in response to an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request that sought records related to the agency’s “actual or considered usage of facial recognition and identify verification software … in the course of processing unemployment claims.”

A coalition of RI open government groups sent a letter to Governor McKee urging him to issue an EO that would allow public bodies to again hold online meetings and require public bodies to provide remote access for the public.

The letter points out that one of the lockdowns is to accommodate a day-long cookout on Mulligan’s Island where COs and their families will enjoy golf, volleyball and other activities. The food for the cookout has typically been prepared by RIDOC inmates.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today called on the city councils in Cranston, Pawtucket, and Woonsocket to direct their respective police departments to halt the use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology leased from the company Flock Safety. In a letter sent to the city council and mayor of each municipality, the ACLU expressed concerns about the serious privacy issues such technologies can pose to all residents and noted that these systems were inappropriately installed on a trial basis in the absence of any public notice, input or statutory guidance.

Under the stipulation, the Mayor agreed to no longer block individuals from her page “based on First Amendment-protected viewpoints expressed.”

These are not decisions that should be unilaterally made by law enforcement. The public should have a say about whether they want potentially invasive and discriminatory technologies in their neighborhoods.