Following outrage over the lack of transparency surrounding the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year, the Texas legislature passed a bill Monday to close a notorious loophole in the state's public record law that allows police to hide records of deaths in custody.
The bill, H.B. 30, now goes to Republican Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott's desk. It would clarify that an exception that allows police to withhold records in cases where the suspect of an investigation was never convicted of a crime does not apply to deceased individuals. Texas enacted the statute in 1997 to protect the privacy of innocent suspects. Still, police departments quickly figured out they could also use it to indefinitely withhold information on deaths in police custody since a dead suspect will never be convicted.
