Comment Submitted by Chris Marder

As with most cases and issues regarding civil rights compliance, or compliance with any sort of regulation for that matter, transparency to an organization's work ethics and cultures are key not only for precise and concise investigations into allegations, but for the overall trust a society gives to an organization safeguarded with an important task. DHS is no different as an organization with enormous and often conflicting expectations of the people for which they are to protect from threats within and beyond. That said, if DHS is already following standard law enforcement and intelligence community guidelines for the protection of highly sensitive information in its documentation, then the additional exclusion of civil rights and civil liberties documentation from sunshine laws would be detrimental to the trust that DHS is given by our society; trust ensured for protecting our assets and liberties against an enemy that we are told exists beyond our soil when they are more likely to be our own neighbors here and now. A civil rights violation is a civil rights violation, whether it occurred in view of public perception or as it occurred through undercover missions beyond the criticisms of the taxpayer. As it is understood, the safe guards in place now to protect sensitive information will protect what needs to be protected. The rest is the open honesty of an agency seeking to protect all people, both the brutally bad and the blessed good, from a threat. Please consider then the longevity of your agency's decision to classify civil rights records; pent up negativity tends to torrentially destroy future objectives, and undermines the legitimacy of the work done to bring justice to those who deserve its retribution.