OPIR fulfills public information requests under the following definition:

"Public Information" means information prepared, owned, used, or retained by a public agency relating to the transaction of official business, regardless of form, except for confidential information that must be protected against public disclosure under applicable law.

Please note: While OPIR provides information already maintained or recorded by an agency, OPIR cannot and does not answer questions for agencies. Questions for agencies are best directed to them.

Before submitting a request, we encourage you to read the Frequently Asked Questions to determine which agencies we process public information requests for and how our process works. 

Checklist for a faster response time

Requestors must describe the records sought in sufficient detail to enable personnel to locate them with a reasonable amount of effort. To the extent possible, requesters should include specific information that may help the agency identify the requested records, such as the date, title or name, author, recipient, subject matter of the record, case number, file designation, or reference number. If your request does not reasonably describe the records sought, the response to the request may be delayed.

• Complete the online form clearly indicating the information you wish to receive.
• Use key words instead of long phrases.
• Be very specific using key words.
• Narrow your request to a specific timeframe if you are seeking emails, providing a start and end date is extremely helpful.
• Make sure you are providing names and organization names correctly, including spelling, spacing, and punctuation. It is not the responsibility of staff to determine what you are searching for.
• Multiple search terms, names, departments or email addresses will result in your request being classified as “not readily available” and will significantly delay a response. Be specific.

For example, a request such as “I would like to receive all information on the use of XYZ on state government devices” is not specific. “All the information” and “state government devices” are very broad terms and could result in thousands of results. Additionally, a search may turn up zero results on a search term that is misspelled or has an alternate spelling or variant word.

A public information request can be made to the agencies OPIR supports from the Make a Public Information Request page.