Supporters of government transparency are renewing their push to modernize Rhode Island’s Access to Public Records Act, or APRA, for the first time since 2012.
Ahead of legislative hearings, advocates are gathering at the Statehouse on Wednesday to urge support for bills sponsored by Sen. Louis DiPalma (D-Middletown) and state Rep. Patricia Serpa (D-West Warwick).
Speaking ahead of an afternoon news conference, John Marion, executive director of the nonpartisan good government group Common Cause of Rhode Island, pointed to one proposed change in underscoring the importance of public records — how the state Department of Transportation would be required, through the APRA update, to share information about car crashes.
“This would open a door to getting that data,” Marion said in an interview. “That affects every Rhode Islander who uses a road, which is virtually all of us. So that’s just one example. It is a very niche set of records, but it is incredibly important to the public.”
Among other changes, advocates are calling for expanded access to 911 recordings, waiving of fees for public interest requests, and new safeguards against bad faith or disruptive record requests.
As The Public’s Radio reported in 2019, Rhode Island was one of about a dozen states that prohibit the release of 911 recordings without a court order or the written consent of the caller.
Efforts to modernize APRA didn’t move ahead last year after facing opposition from Gov. Dan McKee’s office and state departments.
Marion attributed the opposition to how the update “asks more of government.”
“It will require government to do some more work to make records public,” he said, “and people, I think, are naturally skeptical of being asked to do more work. And some of this is breaking new ground in Rhode Island,” including how the legislation would make subpoenas public in some circumstances.
Marion said he is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the open records legislation in the General Assembly, although he acknowledged it won’t be easy.
“Government that has been used to not sharing certain types of records or using certain types of exemptions are naturally reluctant to see that law change,” he said.
