How City & State Government Agencies Can Scale Open Records Request Processes

In the always-on, hyper-connected digital age, you'd think it would be relatively straightforward to produce records for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or open records requests, but it can be incredibly labor intensive, time-consuming work — especially when the relevant records could span across various platforms like email, social media, websites, or Microsoft Teams.

To make it more challenging, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the mass demonstrations in 2020, an increasing number of high-profile political events, and a skyrocketing mistrust of government officials and institutions, open records requests from the public have increased significantly. According to Granicus, "request volume is trending up with a large jump of 42 percentage points over 2023."

So how can city and state government offices scale their operations to meet this increased demand?

How to Scale Your Government Agency's Records Request Response

1. Consider a self-service portal

The simplest way to scale your open records response significantly, is to let the public find the records for themselves through a public-access portal. If your organization makes it easy for the public to retrieve public records, there will be fewer formal requests that your agency needs to respond to.

Two great examples are The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) public website archive or The City of Sacramento's public social media archive. The HHS has seen public records requests for website content actually decrease 30% since implementing the portal. And Sacramento's social media archive even includes council members' social accounts and accounts for public service providers like the Police Department.

When citizens have on-demand access to the most commonly-requested records, you're saving time and money, while building trust with the public through pro-active transparency.

2. Implement an optimized filing process

Usually, anything pertaining to an agencies business is considered a public record. That means, there are a lot of records that the public could request. Maybe it goes without saying, but it is absolutely essential to have an optimized filing process that makes documents easy to find and produce. 

There are a few ways to do this:

• Use a central database: Store all documents in a central database and create a process for requesters to submit their requests online. This way, you can track which documents have been requested and fulfill requests quickly.
• Use document management software: Document management software for online data governance can help you organize and track your documents, making them easier to find and retrieve. 
• Create a standard request form: Use a standard request form for open records requests. This will help you ensure all the necessary information is included.
• Standardize labelling: Make sure all documents (both physical and digital) are labeled clearly and correctly, in some standardized format so they are easy to find. 
• Adopt a proactive approach: Instead of waiting for requests to come in, you can proactively release certain types of documents regularly. For example, you could post agendas and minutes from public meetings online or release budget information quarterly. Make a list of commonly requested documents and post them in a visible spot, like on your website.

3. Leverage automation

There are a number of digital tools built for recordkeeping that can help automate a lot of the more time-consuming tasks involved with fulfilling open records requests. For instance:

• Public Records Management Software: Implementing an automated request system that allows requesters to track the status of their requests and receive updates when new records are released can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to reducing the workload on teams responding to open records requests. By automating the process of tracking and managing open records requests, this type of software can help ensure that all open records requests are properly accounted for and that responses can be processed quickly and efficiently. 
  
  
• Automated Archiving Software: Public record requests are impossible to fill if you've never captured a record or you don't know where to find it. For example, if you are manually archiving your frequently updated agency website or your city has hundreds of social media accounts, run by different agencies and posting multiple times a day, records are bound to get lost in the shuffle. This is a huge legal risk and could mean your agency is non-compliant with recordkeeping laws in your jurisdiction. Automated website archiving ensures that every single record and change is captured, organized, and secure. Automated social media archiving software can also auto-expand comments and even captures posts or comments that have been edited or deleted. (Yes, deleted posts and comments are public record too!)

Scaling responses to open records requests is no small feat, especially in an era of heightened public scrutiny and demand for transparency. But if your agency considers implementing self-service portals, optimized filing processes, and leveraging automation tools, you can not only keep up with the growing volume of requests but also improve efficiency, compliance, and public trust. Embracing these solutions helps ensure that agencies can meet their legal obligations, reduce the burden on their teams, and build stronger relationships with the communities they serve. In the end, a modernized, proactive approach to open records requests is a win for both government agencies and the public.

Download our government Guidebook to Electronic Records Management for FOIA & Open Records Compliance for more information about recordkeeping of website, mobile text, and social media records.