Our Right to Know: Alice Minium

By Savannah Rude

When George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis by police officers in 2020, Alice Minium of Richmond, Virginia noticed there was a lack of local resources to hold police officers accountable and to educate the community. Minium has known about the Freedom of Information Act her whole life but didn’t start using it until she understood the need. 

“It’s always struck me as an odd law because laws usually, in my experience, make life a little worse,” Minium said. “They’re used to oppress me a little bit. But this law seems to uplift the citizens and hold power to account; it feels like an accident that it exists.”

It was then that OpenOversightVA, a free online database, was born. 

It was founded 2022 by Minium, who was in the middle of a lawsuit against the Richmond police at the time. The volunteer staff is comprised of half reporters and half live tweeters; the rest are  focused on ongoing lawsuits

The goal of OpenOversightVA is to have a roster of police officers in Virginia so that if someone felt mistreated by the police, they would have a resource to find public information related to the work of that specific officer. 

Minium said she didn’t know the Virginia Freedom of Information Act very well when she first started the database, whereas now she knows it inside and out.

“I’ve learned how to pressure powerful people just with hacking a situation,” Minium said. “Some of that’s knowing the law, and some of it’s just knowing people.”

OpenOversightVA has thousands of records to track ongoing lawsuits and incident reports involving officers. 

It took Minium figuring out the records-requesting process to get her to where she is now. 

“I knew a lot of reporters who knew more than me, and I knew some lawyers, but most of it was really just trial and error and being really stubborn and acting like I knew more than I did,” Minimum said. “Then, gradually, I developed a reputation, and people don’t want to mess with me quite as much anymore.”

Minium originally wanted to file all of her records requests anonymously, but Virginia’s freedom of information laws do not allow this. 

In Virginia, residency is required to submit a records request. The requester must identify themselves by name and might be required to provide the address listed on their driver’s license. 

When Minium started getting auto responses back, she figured out an effective system to handle them, she said. By organizing the responses into different groups and having an automatic response back depending on the group, it made the process much more efficient. 

“There’s a flow to sort of move it along, and I try to get ahead of the situation early on,” Minium said. “So, in my initial letter, I say my address, I say my name and I say the number resident,

and then I also get ahead of the cost estimate.” 

In Virginia, – the process can slow down substantially after a cost estimate for a records request is given. 

Minium has learned never to agree to a cost estimate and instead find another person to negotiate with. She said that the cost estimate will often be made up by someone whom she calls a “fall guy.” 

“I try really hard to connect myself with a decision maker, which is usually the county attorney, early on so that we can move the process along, and I’ll also try to get people on the phone early on to just sort of move through it,” Minium said. “A lot of times, once you’re able to connect with the human being and try to convince them you’re working together, then sometimes that will help.” 

Minium utilizes Google Workspace to track emails to inboxes and see if the email has been opened. She will then set up intervals of how often she reaches back out to the specific agency, whether it’s by phone or email. 

She takes the stance of being willing to go to court in the event of roadblocks or no response. 

In one situation, Minium took other methods of reaching out. 

“I looked up all the board members, and I emailed them all, and I was like, ‘I’m really concerned about what’s going on right now, and just like trying to email, like we want to avoid the costly process of embarrassing, you know, litigation.’” Minium said. “Sometimes, I’ll call the chief directly.” 

Anyone can utilize – freedom of information laws in their states, Minium said. 

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t believe anybody who says it’s too complicated for you to understand because it’s not. And then don’t take no for an answer,” Minium said. “That is really what has gotten me success; it is just not going away. And you really learn that way. You learn a lot and just double down on what you know your rights are.”

She said she wishes everyone would try filing a public records request at least once. 

“Just try it, and don’t just accept what the government tells you as the default truth,” Minium said. “A lot of times, we have to do that in certain situations, but FOIA isn’t one of them.”

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government named Minium the 2024 recipient of its Laurence E. Richardson Citizen Award for Open Government.