FOIA Builder

Public agencies have to tell you what they do with your data. Almost nobody asks, and the ones who do often ask in a way that gets them nothing. These are the requests we file, with the wording that has actually returned records.

One rule sits behind every choice on this page: ask for the smallest set of records that answers your question. A short request comes back in weeks. A long one comes back as a fee estimate, or not at all.

AgencyOptional, but it names the agency in the request and on the filing. Leave it blank and the text says “your agency.”

Whether your police department feeds its records into a shared database, what it holds back, and who else can read it. Pick the vendor, or use Generic for one we have not built out yet.

Vendor

Any platform that pools your agency’s records with other agencies. Name the vendor or system and the request adapts to it.

Vendor or system nameUse the name the agency uses in its own paperwork. If the product has changed hands, list the old name too.

Is this agency part of a records sharing consortium?

Consortium records are hidden. Say yes to add them. Not sure is fine, and leaves them off.

Records to request

Data sharing, participation, or user agreementRecommendedThe document that says what leaves the building and who can read it. Whatever the vendor calls it, this is the one to ask for first.What is shared, and with whomRecommendedMost platforms let an administrator choose which record types go out and which agencies can see them. That configuration is a record, and it answers the question more directly than the contract does.Invoices from the last 12 monthsHighly suggestedCheap to pull, almost never withheld, and the line items name the modules that the contract language obscures.Agencies that can access your data through the platformHighly suggestedThe list is often the story. It is also where outside jurisdictions and federal agencies show up.Vendor onboarding and data mapping guidanceOptionalWhat the vendor told the agency to contribute and what to hold back. Shows the vendor’s hand rather than the agency’s.Logs of outside searches of your dataOptionalWho searched your records and why. Usually vendor-generated, so the request says so and gives the agency a clean way to answer that it cannot see them.Contracts, order forms, and amendmentsOptionalOften already public through a council agenda or state contract portal, so look there first.Agency policy governing use of the platformOptionalWhether anyone wrote down who may search, for what purpose, and what happens to a misuse.

Your request

I am requesting records concerning your agency’s participation in the data sharing platform, a platform through which law enforcement agencies contribute records to a shared database that other agencies can search.

1) Any data sharing agreement, participation agreement, user agreement, memorandum of understanding, or addendum between your agency and the data sharing platform that governs the contribution of your agency’s records to the platform or the access of other agencies to those records. Please include any exhibit, schedule, or attachment that lists the record types, systems, or fields covered.

2) Records showing which of your agency’s data sources (for example RMS, CAD, jail, citation, or license plate reader data), record types, or fields are contributed to the data sharing platform, which are excluded, and which agencies or classes of user are able to search or receive them. If this configuration is maintained in the platform’s administrative interface, please export or print it.

3) Invoices issued to your agency by the data sharing platform during the last twelve months.

Edit it freely. This is the “specific records requested” section only. MuckRock adds the statute citation, fee waiver, deadline, and sign-off when you paste it in.

Have better request text?

Send it to us and we will review it and replace what is here. This tool gets better as the public and other researchers send us language that actually worked. FOIA@fineprint.report

Why this matters

Records requests are how the public checks what an agency is doing. When an agency resists a routine disclosure, the resistance is itself worth reporting.

Every request filed creates a paper trail. Every return adds to the public record. FinePrint publishes FOIA returns in full. The documents are the evidence.

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