Coalition letter to DoJ about status of accountability database

[Alexander Howard]

A coalition of organizations dedicated to transparency and accountability sent a letter to USAG Garland today asking about the status of the database of law enforcement misconduct President Biden ordered — and that the US government committed to delivering on in the 5th US National Action Plan for Open Government: 

https://www.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Coalition-letter-Law-enforcement-database-1.pdf

On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 11:27 PM <us-open-g...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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• DOJ announces completion of OIP commitment but no word on law enforcement database - 1 Update

DOJ announces completion of OIP commitment but no word on law enforcement database

Alexander Howard <alexande...@gmail.com>: Mar 13 10:55AM -0400 Speaking at today’s Sunshine Week, the Department of Justice repeatedly referenced OGP, celebrated open government, and listed successful initiatives across federal agencies. (Video and remarks to be posted)       DoJ’s Office of Information Policy issued new guidance on the presumption of openness and forseeable harm standard: https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/oip-issues-guidance-presumption-openness-and-foreseeable-harm-standard   OIP announced that it had fulfilled the first of its commitments for the fifth US national action plan for open government — an update to the self-assessment toolkit that the agency was already working on prior to last winter’s co-creation process. https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/united-states/commitments/US0139/   The DoJ did not announce the launch of the database of law enforcement misconduct that the President ordered to be online by January 20, 2023, which the USA also committed to in the https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/united-states/commitments/US0147/   Last week, the White House Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs held a listening session, in support of its commitment to improve public engagement around regulatory actions — which also pre-existed the OGP co-creation process: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/united-states/commitments/US0121/   It would be good to hear from the US officials who are listening here during Sunshine Week about the status of the law enforcement misconduct database, demonstrating this administration’s commitment to transparency and commitment in action.   President Biden and Vice President Harris could hold a news conference with US AG Garland at which on all of the states in our union to make this data open, to demonstrate the US government’s return to a more open government to the world. (You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.)

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[alexande...@gmail.com]

Hi all --

A quick update on where things stand with the OGP process in executive branch of US government, following up on my last post: The Department of Justice has responded to our coalition letter and stated that they're still working on the design phase of the database of police misconduct that President Biden ordered be launched by January 20, 2023. (2+ months after the President's deadline, the DoJ gave no timeline for when it will go live.) I've asked someone from the US government to post a response here about that the status of that commitment, along with others.

The grab bag of pre-existing administration programs, policies, orders, and initiatives that this White House repackaged and marketed as a new national ation plan has no deadlines, accountable agencies, or officials: https://open.usa.gov/national-action-plan/5/

While the OGP member page for the USA breaks out individual commitments, there is similarly no accountability or deadlines for implementation: the fields are just blank.

https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/united-states/

As I've said many times, it would be helpful if the White House were to set up a dashboard again at wh.gov/open that listed past & present commitments and their status, linking out to open government work across the US government and this administration's own transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration initiatives, where they exist or persist.