Don't-Collect Strategy Evades Records Laws

Agencies can dodge scrutiny by not maintaining basic lists, then deny public-records requests that would require 'compiling or summarizing' data. Alaska’s state police told an Alaska Native nonprofit they don’t keep homicide‑victim lists by race and rejected requests for names, despite public pledges to tackle Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. This tactic turns technical record‑keeping choices into a shield against oversight. — If governments can avoid oversight by choosing not to build datasets, accountability and policy evaluation on crime and race are structurally undermined.