TL;DR: It's Sunshine Week, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock just released their annual Foilies awards: tongue-in-cheek recognition of the government agencies, officials, and contractors who worked hardest to undermine transparency. This year's winners include DOGE (which fired FOIA officers and told CNN "good luck with that"), DHS (which stopped automatically archiving text messages), a California police department that spent over $400,000 hiding drone footage of car crashes, and Flock Safety (which sent legal threats to websites documenting ALPR surveillance abuses).
What Are the Foilies?
Every year during Sunshine Week (March 15-21), EFF and MuckRock hand out the Foilies, awards named for the Freedom of Information Law that agencies keep violating. The awards highlight the most egregious examples of government agencies hiding public records, the officials who enable it, and the contractors making secrecy profitable [1].
This is the eleventh year. The transparency failures keep getting worse.
The "Discardment of Government Efficiency" Award: DOGE
Elon Musk said "all government data should be default public." Then DOGE seized control of the U.S. Institute of Peace, fired the FOIA officers, and restricted access to agency records systems [2].
When CNN filed a records request after the firings, they got a memorable response: "Good luck with that."
DOGE now claims its records are exempt under the Presidential Records Act, which means a five-year delay before any documents become public. The same agency demanding transparency from everyone else has built a wall around its own operations.
Related: DOGE demanded access to Social Security's NUMIDENT database. When a whistleblower raised concerns about "god-level access" to records of nearly every American, investigators got involved. Transparency for us, not for them.
The "Shady Screenshot" Award: Department of Homeland Security
DHS discontinued automatic archiving of officials' text messages [1]. The replacement system? Screenshots.
Federal law requires agencies to retain all records created during official duties. DHS's solution: trust employees to manually screenshot their own conversations. No automation. No oversight. Just a policy that assumes government officials will faithfully document their own communications.
If you've ever wondered why text messages keep vanishing from FOIA responses, now you know. The system is designed to lose records.
The "Secret Eyes in the Sky" Award: Chula Vista Police Department
In 2021, La Prensa San Diego requested drone footage from Chula Vista PD. The footage showed routine calls: vehicle fires, traffic collisions. Nothing classified. Nothing sensitive.
Chula Vista spent over $400,000 in legal fees fighting to keep the footage secret [2]. When they finally lost on appeal, they had to pay the journalist's legal fees too: another $500,000+.
Nearly a million dollars to hide video of car crashes. Your tax dollars at work.
This is what happens when police departments treat all surveillance footage as automatically exempt. Fight every request. Bill the taxpayers. Hope the requesters give up.
The "Flock You" Awards: Mass Surveillance Secrecy
Three winners share this category, all connected to automated license plate reader networks that track millions of drivers.
Taunton Police Department, Massachusetts
The ACLU of Massachusetts requested audit logs from the city's Flock Safety ALPR network. The response: $1.8 million [1]. Police estimated 20,000 hours of processing time at $86.57 per hour.
Audit logs. Not footage. Not case files. Just records of who searched the system and what they searched for.
Orange County Sheriff's Department, California
Same request, different excuse. Orange County refused to release ALPR audit logs because disclosure would "disincentivize law enforcement from conducting such research" [2].
Translation: if the public knew how we're using surveillance data, we'd have to stop.
Flock Safety
The ALPR vendor itself sent legal threats to DeFlock.me and HaveIBeenFlocked.com, websites that document how police have abused Flock cameras to track abortion patients, immigrants, and protesters [1]. Flock claimed trademark violations to try silencing critics.
The documented abuses include:
- A Texas officer searching for a woman who had a self-administered abortion
- Tracking immigrants for ICE
- Running surveillance on protesters
- Racist searches targeting Roma people
When journalists document the abuse, threaten to sue. When researchers track the systems, price them out. When activists organize, surveil them too.
The "Love Letters" Award: Gov. Greg Abbott
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office withheld approximately 1,400 pages of communications with Elon Musk. The claimed exemptions: "confidential legal and policy discussions" and (seriously) "intimate and embarrassing" exchanges [2].
After the Texas Attorney General ordered release in fall 2025, about 1,200 pages came back fully redacted. The unredacted content included an invitation to a happy hour and SpaceX launch reminders.
Intimate and embarrassing, indeed.
The "Database Deletion" Award: Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter
The Akhter brothers worked for Opexus, a federal contractor. After being fired, they deleted 96 government databases containing FOIA records and investigative files [1].
One detail: after the deletion, one brother searched an AI system for "how to clear system logs."
They're facing charges for unauthorized computer access, theft of government records, and conspiracy to commit computer fraud. Both were previously convicted of wire fraud and obstructing justice.
When transparency depends on contractors, sabotage is always one disgruntled employee away.
The "City of Darkness" Award: Richmond, Virginia
Richmond created a FOIA Library, a public-facing portal where residents can browse released records. Sounds good, right?
Problem: the library is curated by the mayor's administration. Officials who might be the subject of records requests get to decide which released records appear in the portal [2].
Meanwhile, the city has spent over $633,000 fighting a lawsuit from Connie Clay, the former FOIA officer they fired. Clay alleged a "chaotic and mismanaged" FOIA process. Richmond rejected a $250,000 settlement offer and is headed to trial this summer.
The Pattern
Read these awards together and a pattern emerges:
- Fire the compliance officers: DOGE, Richmond
- Stop creating records: DHS text messages
- Price requesters out: Taunton's $1.8M quote, Vancouver's $10 fee
- Litigate until they quit: Chula Vista's $400K fight
- Threaten the watchdogs: Flock Safety's legal threats
- Claim novel exemptions: DOGE's Presidential Records Act dodge, Orange County's "disincentivize" logic
The Foilies are funny until you realize they're documenting the death of public accountability, one exemption at a time.
What You Can Do
File FOIA Requests
MuckRock makes it easy to submit records requests to any agency. Start with your local police department's surveillance contracts.
Track ALPR Networks
The EFF's Atlas of Surveillance maps police surveillance technology by city and county. See what's watching you locally.
Support Sunshine Laws
State FOIA laws vary wildly. The Reporters Committee tracks state-level transparency legislation. Find out what's happening in yours.
References
Published: March 17, 2026