Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law for Requesters - OOR Training

This session, hosted by OOR Executive Director Erik Arneson on Dec. 2, 2020, focuses on Right-to-Know Law issues of importance to the media and to citizen requesters. Topics covered include:

RTKL basics (1:16)
What a "record" is under the RTKL (2:42)
The presumption of openness (7:01)
How to file a RTKL request (10:15)
The standard RTKL request form (16:31)
The RTKL request timeline (20:25)
Costs under the RTKL and format of records (25:11)
What to expect when an agency denies a request (29:38)
Writing a good RTKL request: Don't ask questions (30:26)
Writing a good RTKL request: Specificity (31:33)
Writing a good RTKL request: Keywords (38:47)
Writing a good RTKL request: Be cautious about "lists" (41:08)
Writing a good RTKL request: Information in databases (42:29)
Common exemptions raised by agencies (49:56)
Exemption (b)(1): Personal security (51:50)
Exemption (b)(2): Public safety (52:47)
Exemption (b)(6): Personal identification information (54:35)
Exemption (b)(7): Agency employee information (55:44)
Exemption (b)(10): Internal, predecisional deliberations (57:30)
Exemption (b)(17): Non-criminal investigations (59:27)
Exemption (b)(16): Criminal investigations (1:01:50)
Police blotter information & other law enforcement records (1:02:28)
Appealing a denial from a local law enforcement agency (1:05:26)
Requesting police recordings (1:07:14)
911 recordings and transcripts (1:08:40)
Tip: Communicate with the agency (1:10:02)
Appealing a RTKL denial (1:12:07)
Mediation at the OOR (1:19:38)
About the OOR (1:21:20)
OOR Resources (1:23:46)

Download the presentation here:
https://openrecordspa.files.wordpress...
https://openrecordspa.files.wordpress...

The OOR website is https://www.openrecords.pa.gov/

The OOR training calendar is available at https://www.openrecords.pa.gov/RTKL/T...