FOI requests improve, but some agencies still lag

Colleen Krantz of The Des Moines Register and Janet Rorholm of The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette report that a newspaper audit of public records in Iowa shows that "law enforcement agencies in Iowa provided greater access to their public documents during a recent investigation by Iowa newspapers than the agencies did five years ago, yet police departments and sheriff offices still violated the law by withholding records about a third of the time." City clerks and county government agencies provided better access to records this time, according to the audit, which was assisted by Drake University journalism students. A searchable database of results is available.