The University of Texas at Tyler reported the results of its regular audit of how East Texas agencies comply with the Texas Public Information Act, which guarantees public access to government-maintained records. The findings were explored in a Tyler Morning Telegraph article.

The students visited just over 100 agency offices in 11 east Texas counties. They wanted to see who posted the proper Public Information Act guidelines, if they could show proof of required Public Information Act compliance training, and if access to public information would be granted with minimal questioning and within 10 business days, as set out in the law.

The school has been doing the study since 2002.

The results were mixed, some encouraging, others unimpressive.

Overall, compliance dropped for the first time, to 36 percent in 2008 when comparing the same 100 entities tested since 2002. Compliance was at its lowest in 2002 (17 percent overall) and at its highest (47 percent) in 2006.

Government officials did, however, improve in their ability to show proof of required public information training. The 2008 study revealed an 82 percent compliance rate compared with 74 percent in 2006.

Most requests were granted within the allotted 10 days, but half the time they came only after inappropriate questioning by government employees and a few cringe-worthy, patronizing episodes.

Sometimes, staff gave inadequate responses:

In one case, a city worker in Bullard told a student researcher she couldn't have access to any records because she did not live within the city limits.

Some surveyors requesting records were treated with suspicion. One student, while driving with her mother away from the police station where she requested arrest records, learned that the police had gotten their car's license plate number and were running a check on them.

Student researchers reported being asked numerous questions including why they wanted the information and what they planned to do with it - clear violations of the law.

In another instance, a student was told he would have to pay $4 to view a report, "since [he] wasn't with the media."

It also seems that some agencies surveyed were familiar with the study. A related story in the Tyler Morning Telegraph explored the possibility that the results of the survey were skewed as a result.

Even if they knew they were being monitored, however, it didn't stop some government workers from violating the open records laws and condescending to requestors:

Employees in one-third of the 116 government entities surveyed this year asked the researcher if he or she was a student, attended UT Tyler or if the information they requested was "for a class."

One student's report quoted a Gilmer police officer as saying, "He's probably just one of those college kids trying to bust us and write about it in the paper."

It was also clear in some cases that the requests were handled differently because the requestors were known to be students.

"Because the way we normally do it for open records is you have to submit it (request) in writing and we have 10 days to respond to that. But if you're doing it for a class, you could probably just come back later," a researcher quoted a secretary as saying.