Transparency.
Accountability.
Shedding light on government waste, fraud, and abuse.
That’s what Sunshine Week is all about.
Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, education, government, and private sectors that demonstrates the importance of public records laws and open government. Here at Independent Institute, we couldn’t be prouder to embody the spirit of Sunshine Week through our California Golden Fleece® Awards (CGFA).
The California Golden Fleece® Awards are a series of in-depth reports from the Independent Institute that expose waste, fraud, and abuse in California on the state or local level. To receive this ignoble designation, a program, agency, policy, tax, or regulation must violate common-sense principles of responsible government, be considered wasteful by people of differing political views, and must be well documented.
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Independent Institute President Graham H. Walker discusses our CGFA program with Dr. Lawrence J. McQuillan, CGFA’s Founder and Director; Adam B. Summers, Research Fellow; and Jonathan Hofer, Research Associate. Each report sheds light on critical issues affecting all Californians, including wildfires, housing, water resources, the Department of Motor Vehicles, government technology, smash-and-grab crimes, automated license plate readers (ALPRs), and more…
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Our team has written two reports on California’s wildfires. The first, written in 2017, calls out Cal Fire for favoring expensive and inefficient fire management strategies that not only increase its budget, but also put people and property at greater fire risk. The second, written in 2019, offered 26 key recommendations to improve wildfire safety.
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Housing remains a critical issue for Californians. Despite much hand-wringing and pronouncements by politicians to “fix the problem,” state and local governments have made the problem worse, especially for lower-income residents. This report focuses on removing obstacles to fast and affordable housing development (an initiative that has become even more pressing because of California’s devastating wildfires).
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AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS (ALPRs)
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Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) gather information from passing cars faster than police officers can visually confirm license plates. These high-speed cameras can rapidly scan numerous computer-readable images, eliminating the need for law enforcement personnel to do manual checks. However, the few ALPR laws on the books are often ignored or are not comprehensive enough to prevent misuse. Now out in the wild, ALPRs represent a significant risk to civil liberties. That’s why our team awarded the thirteenth California Golden Fleece® Award to all agencies that have adopted this technology without proper safeguards.
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