Why We Exist
When public agencies harm people, the documentation that should protect those people has a way of disappearing. Complaints vanish from files. ADA accommodations go unrecorded. FOIL timelines stretch indefinitely. Deaf and disabled civilians are erased from incident reports entirely.
The harm happens. The accountability doesn't. That's the gap TLE fills.
Example: In January 2024, Rochester Police denied a Deaf motorist her ADA right to an interpreter. The department investigated itself, took no corrective action, and ignored every external accountability request. The documentation we obtained through FOIL proves the violation occurred. The silence that followed proves why documentation isn't enough.
What Makes TLE Different
Most oversight organizations assume agencies want to improve and just need the right incentives. Three years of systematic FOIL requests across New York agencies have taught us something different. We've learned to expect patterns that others treat as exceptions:
- Escalation is required - Initial requests are routinely ignored or minimally fulfilled
- Documentation gaps are strategic - If there's no record, the incident becomes deniable
- Delays serve a purpose - Time weakens cases and exhausts complainants
We don't start by assuming good faith because our data shows that assumption costs people their rights.
Our Approach
TLE operates as a systematic documentation project focused on New York State agencies. We file strategically structured FOIL requests across multiple agencies, then track how those requests are handled over time. Every delay gets logged. Every denial gets documented. Every deflection becomes part of the record.
When patterns emerge across departments and dates, we publish that evidence while it's still fresh - before files can be "reorganized" or records can be "updated."
We document violations and build airtight evidence packages. Then we hand them to people with standing to act - attorneys, advocacy organizations, journalists, oversight bodies. Our job is making the institutional failure undeniable. Their job is forcing consequences.
This isn't about demanding change through advocacy. It's about making institutional failures harder to hide through documentation.
What This Means
TLE is not a coalition building consensus. We're not a nonprofit seeking grants. We're not running a media campaign hoping for coverage.
We're building a live, adversarial archive - systematically documenting how New York public agencies fail deaf, disabled, and marginalized communities, then ensuring those failures become permanent public record.
We're staying focused on New York because the work here is far from finished.
How You Can Engage
If you want accountability tools:
Use our FOIL templates and tracking systems. They're designed to work whether you're filing one request or a hundred.
If you have standing to act:
We have evidence packages ready to hand off. Civil rights attorneys, Deaf advocacy organizations, investigative journalists, oversight bodies - if you can use documentation to force accountability, we'll give you everything we have.
If you want to replicate this model:
Our methods are open source. Build your own TLE wherever you see systematic documentation failures.
If you think we're wrong:
Fix the problems we're documenting before we get to them. We'd rather be unnecessary than proven right.
About TLE
TLE operates independently, which means we can pursue documentation that others might avoid and ask questions others might not ask. That's by design - accountability shouldn't require permission.
We focus on New York State because:
- Three years of FOIL experience gives us institutional knowledge others lack
- We can identify patterns across NYS agencies that single-incident advocates miss
- There's more than enough work here to fill decades
- Our methodology works - and the work is far from finished
Contact
For case file access:
admin@transparentlawenforcement.com
For media inquiries:
admin@transparentlawenforcement.com
For legal/advocacy collaboration:
admin@transparentlawenforcement.com
TLE operates as an independent documentation project. We are not a legal advocacy organization and do not provide legal representation.