With record access tested in more than 30 states in the last seven years, you’d think government officials would be obeying FOI laws by now.

Not so.

The new Tennessee Coalition for Open Government even announced its audit ahead of time.

Even so, one-third of the time its auditors were denied access.

As TCOG Director Frank Gibson said, the 117 denials out of 356 records requested in the two-day survey indicates the struggle citizens face in seeing basic information collected by their local government.

In Ohio, a statewide survey showed records were provided without conditions only half the time.

In Florida, an audit by 30 newspapers found only 57 percent of that state’s public officials in compliance with disclosure laws.

Fourteen Virginia newspapers and the AP conducted a similar audit in 1998, with even worse results. At that time, fewer than one in five police and sheriffs departments disclosed their incident reports.

Since then, Virginia sheriffs have undergone some FOIA training. The Association of Police Chiefs has published its own FOI training materials and conducted annual training sessions as well.