The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "open records request" ...
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Rápido y Furioso (Fast & Furious)
In this special edition of the newsmagazine program “Aqui y Ahora” (“Here and Now”), Univision news reports on the drug trade’s violent impact in Mexico, an aspect of the story that is often lost. We are submitting this report for your consideration in the FOI category. Although the hundreds of classified us and Mexican government documents weren’t obtained through a FOI request, we believe our process of gathering and comparing comprehensive information from two different governments, resulted in a story that did “open records and open government” in a unique and revealing way that could not be achieved by simply filing a FOI request.
Tags: gun; border; Mexico; U.S. border patrol
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Digital Footprint & Sunshine Law
Our investigation led to a politician's resignation and criminal charges using social network search engines, traditional online databases and open records requests to identify his criminal past and as many as seven females who were pictured in nude photos, harassed, stalked or suffered cyber identity theft.
Tags: broadcast; criminal past; politician; resignation
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Cashing In
During a period of tight city finances, Memphis was outlaying a yearly average of as much as $2,300 per day on attorneys fees. Nealry $8 million across 22 law firms was payed out by taxpayers in a four year time frame. WREG-TV uncovered that many of these lawyers were personal friends of the mayor, and the station's requests for budget items were purposefully stalled and stonewalled until serious actions of litigation against the city were threatened.
Tags: Memphis; attorneys; fees; lawyers; legal; firms; contracts; mayor; friends; finance; open records; municipal; city; campaign manager
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Executive Decisions
The story identified a pattern of involvement by Executive Council - the wing of the bureaucracy serving the premier - in vetting and withholding information from FOI requests, contrary to the letter of open-records legislation and sworn testimony by civil servants.
Tags: Canada; open records; FOIA; executive council; premier; Newfoundland; Danny Williams; purple files
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University of Iowa Sexual Assault Investigation
The Press-Citizen takes a look at how the University of Iowa handled an alleged sexual assault by football players at one of the university's residence halls. Access to information of the case details were withheld by the university from the publication.
Tags: rape; athletic department; Hawkeye; Kirk Ferentz; athletes; open records request; UI;
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Secret Police
KGTV "audited Sand Diego county law enforcement agencies requesting public records. Working with CalAware, a state-wide open records advocacy group, we went undercover to see how these agencies would comply with California's Open Record laws."
Tags: CalAware; undercover; open record; law enforcement; oral request; written request; public documents
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Ticket Fraud
After receiving a tip, The Times discovered that two police officers were "falsifying the time on traffic tickets they issued to make it appear they were working overtime in accordance with a state seatbelt awareness and safety initiative."
Tags: tickets; seat belt; police; police department; open records request;
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The Downfall of Judge Randy Michel
When Brazos County Juvenile Board member Judge Randy Michel appointed attorney Patricia Bonilla Harrison over six other candidates to be a part-time juvenile judge, rumors began to swirl that Harrison was unfit for the position. The Eagle investigated, substantiating the rumors that Harrison was not only underqualified, but also had a "history of alcohol-related arrests." As the process of making open records requests went on, Harrison turned down the post amid rumors that she was having an affair with one of the judges, and the District Attorney's office began its own investigation of the situation. Eventually, Michel "was expelled from his bench" and the state's open records law was strengthened.
Tags: Judges; nepotism; illicit appointments; open records laws
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A Stunning Toll
Fort Worth Weekly partnered with University of North Texas students who made open records requests of all Texas law enforcement agencies to obtain data on deaths and injuries in Texas resulting form law enforcement agency individual's Taser use.
Tags: Distributed Reporting Project; FOI; Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas; University of North Texas; UNT; Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism; Tasers; law enforcement; Texas Public Information Act; police; sheriffs; Taser International; American Civil Liberties Union; Live Music Capitol of the World; Austin; use-of-force policy; bean hole; stun gun; product safety; wrongful death; Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas; Those Disgruntled Motherfuckers That Have Been Tased; TDMTHBT; Light of Day Project; IRE Student Entry
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Seeking Justice for Jill: The Behrman Murder Investigation
WXIN-TV reporter Kimberly King spent most of 2006 looking into the police investigation of the death of Jill Behrman, an Indiana University-Bloomington sophomore who disappeared in May 2000. Her body was found in 2003, "miles from where detectives thought (she) had been killed." For the intervening three years, "investigators built their case around a convicted woman's false confession." But after the body was discovered, a lead detective sealed the public records regarding the case and did little to pursue it further. Spurred by a request from a relative of Behrman, WXIN worked on the story for three years, finally spending 2006 blowing it open. As a result, police moved further on the case.
Tags: Murder; Indiana University; police; homicide; closed cases; homicide investigations; missing persons; false confession