Don’t Let the Pandemic (or the Freeze) Cloud Sunshine Week
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Video from a Jan. 5 officer-involved shooting won’t be made public until April, the Austin police say, because on top of everything else, it got cold in Texas in February.
According to a police statement, “due to recent city of Austin weather-related closures, APD will not be releasing the video during the initial 60-day timeframe.”
Last year was a bad one for the Texas Public Information Act and other government accountability (“sunshine”) laws. And 2021 isn’t starting off so well, either. Numerous government agencies cited the pandemic as an excuse to delay public information requests.