Networks of Philly — Right to Know

What?

In order to support the networksofphilly.org project, we are creating a series of Right To Know requests that will be submitted to various organizations within the Philadelphia government in an attempt to gain information on surveillance equipment deployed throughout the city.

These efforts have been inspired by the Aaron Swartz Day Police Surveillance Project #ASDPSP and information brought to light via "The Wiretap Room" by Ryan Gallagher and Henrik Moltke.

View info on the Right to Know law (Act 3 of 2008, 65 P.S. ยงยง 67.101 et seq.).

How?

To simplify the process, we are using Muckrock, a non-profit collaborative news site, to file requests. Muckrock requires a small fee of $5 to process each request, but they have helpful features including easy-to-use templating, automatic follow-up, and document scanning.

Requests and responses are available to freely view/download via Muckrock. Ultimately, any documents of interest will also be mirrored and examined, resulting in a written article with relevant findings.

Where are the requests?

All requests are linked to their corresponding item on Muckrock. View our project page on MuckRock here. As of July 2019, we are no longer submitting requests to the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office as this office does no investigatory work.

Previous Requests