Lastly, a big thank you to the staff and students at the Yale Media Freedom and Information Access clinic who have represented me in this case and have done an incredible job and worked incredibly hard, including at a hearing during their finals week last spring. END

I currently do not know if MPD will appeal the FOIC's decision in court or if they will simply deny my followup request. But they have a 45 day window to appeal the FOIC ruling, which likely means nothing will happen for at least that long. 9/

Not having to start from scratch is good. More waiting and delay (at taxpayer expense) is not good. The FOIC's decision recognized that there is a strong public interest in how ALPRs are being used by communities. MPD's delay tactics hurt the public's right to know. 8/

The good news is the FOIC added an order to its decision that allows me to appeal a subsequent denial of my request as a violation of their decision. I'll still have to go back to the FOIC to argue ALPR records aren't exempt from FOIA disclosure, but it will be expedited. 7/

Which is extremely frustrating because I've been sitting on the ALPR issue for over a year -- and watching other stories get written about it -- while I wait for data. 6/

This means MPD can deny the followup request I already filed and claim the same exemption we already know LIKELY doesn't apply. They indicated during yesterday's hearing they will be relitigating the case. 5/

Additionally, while the FOIC found the records are LIKELY not exempt from FOIA disclosure for revealing police investigatory techniques as MPD claimed, they can't say that for sure because they didn't examine the actual records. 4/

That means the records I requested about a year ago were purged automatically. Manchester PD was chastised by the FOIC for deleting records that were the subject of a FOIA request. HOWEVER the FOIC can't order those records be produced. 3/

I asked for 30 days of ALPR hits because this is how long Flock keeps them in their system. MPD did nothing to actually obtain those records because they claim doing so would have been 'too burdensome.' They didn't even reach out to Flock. 2/

Final decision to come at the FOIC's November 19 meeting.

ALPRs record data automatically and continuously and not specifically in relation to a crime. The exemption is 'unlikely' to apply because the records I was seeking were automatically deleted while the case was progressing. Manchester PD is also ordered not to do that again.