Chapter 4 – Requesting Public Records

Most actions taken by federal or state government officials are recorded somewhere. Government databases also record much of the actions of businesses and individuals. Some information, like voter registration, health inspections and census statistics, are readily available through the Internet or local offices. But other information that the government has is not easily available. You have to ask for it and sometimes you must sue to get it. Both the federal Freedom of Information Act and state public records acts give you access to public documents — if you know how to use them, what you are entitled to get and what the government can withhold. Because the process can take time, you should file public records requests as early as possible in your investigation. Follow the steps of a successful investigation that relied on public records to find out how you can best use similar documents in investigative reporting.

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Exercises

Use government resources and the FOIA to your advantage

  1. Go to the http://usa.gov and find the A–Z list of government agencies. Select one and file a public records request with the agency’s FOIA administer requesting the logs of all FOIA requests made to the agency over the past two years. You can create the letter using the automatic letter generator at the Web site of the Student Press Law Center at http://splc.org.
  2. Go to the home page of your state government. Find a listing of state agencies. Select one and file a public records request with the agency’s public records request administrator for the logs of all public records requests made to the agency over the past two years. You can create the letter using the automatic letter generator at the Web site of the Student Press Law Center at http://splc.org.
  3. Go to the Extra! Extra! page on the Web site of Investigative Reporters & Editors, at http://ire.org. Find a story based on state or federal public records requests. What information was the news organization able to find? Could the story have been done without getting those documents?
  4. Using an Internet search engine or http://foia.cia.gov, search for frequently requested FOIA documents from the CIA. What are some of the most sought-after records people request from the Central Intelligence Agency?

Big Story Steps

Submitting public records requests

  1. 4.1 As a group, discuss what documents you might be able to request from the government that could help you document and prove your premise.
  2. 4.2 Go to the Web site of the Student Press Law Center, http://splc.org. Using the automatic letter generator, write the necessary public records requests that you think might yield pertinent documents and data for your story. Make copies; sign and mail the originals. Have at least two people sign each letter.
  3. 4.3 Create a spreadsheet to keep track of your public records requests. In it create columns for the agency you sent the request to, what you requested, when you sent it, the date the agency responds and a summary of information it produces. Add your public records spreadsheet to your Master Sourcelist and anchor it there by creating a hyperlink.