When I started covering crime as a reporter for small newspapers in the 1980s, I was assigned to walk to the police department lobby each morning and look through all of the previous day’s police reports, clipped to a board on the counter, containing all the details laid out for anyone to see. We were able to report to the community each day on the major events in town – to explain why people heard sirens, or saw a smoke plume.

By the 1990s, the clipboards were moved out of the lobby, so we asked at the counter to see them. Then we were told we had to review them with the sergeant on duty. Then we were told we couldn’t see them – we had to ask the police what they felt was newsworthy. Then we were told to submit a public records request, and wait for days or weeks – if we got them at all.

For decades, journalists and civic activists have lamented the increasing secrecy of government – the times, they were denied government information, particularly from public records requests. Reports have shown secrecy getting worse at the federal, state and local government levels.

But those were usually anecdotal reports of problems. Now, there is data that brings those refusals into focus and which provides a fuller picture of government agencies hiding their work from the public they ostensibly serve.

Openness Benefits People And Society

The stakes, and potential ramifications for everyday people, are significant.

Access to government records helps people research their family history, identify quality schools for their children, monitor the cleanliness of their drinking water, backgroundcheck their online dates, and hold their local town officials accountable.

And there are clear benefits: Open records are proven to lead to less sexoffender recidivism, fewer food service complaints, increased trust in government institutions and reduced corruption.

Stanford University professor James Hamilton calculated that for every dollar spent by newspapers on public recordsbased journalism, society realizes benefits worth US$287 in lower taxes and saved lives.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article at theconversation.com.