Veteran Alaska reporters Nat Herz and Kyle Hopkins share tips for becoming a public records ninja — or at least someone who doesn’t waste time on wild records chases.

In the presentation, Herz said records requests are a really useful function of his job. 

“It helps me find stories, but also enhance stories with information, hard facts and other details and context,” he said.

What kinds of records you can look for:

• A specific document or set of documents that you know exists.
• Routine/regular request (calendars, correspondence, contracts or messages).
• Fishing expedition (for when you don’t know what you’re looking for, but you’re curious).
• Establishing context (dynamics between different people/institutions).
• Capturing detail around a specific issue.

What to ask for:

• If you know exactly what you’re looking for, ask for it.
• If not, specify searching by person or their contact information.
• Or look at dates and range of dates.
• Or types of communications such as texts, emails, receipts or billing records.

Once you know what you want to request, find out who at the government agency you’re wanting to request the records from has access to the documents and records you’re looking for. People who have plenty of experience handling records requests can also be great sources of information, and even be helpful in getting you information you didn’t know about. Herz recommends getting on the phone with the person who has access to the records and letting them know who you are and that you’ll be filing a records request. 

“‘Hi, I’m a reporter, I’m about to send in a request looking for these things, is there anything I should know?’” he said. “It just short circuits potentially any number of pitfalls or delays.”

Different entities have different deadlines for producing documents, in the city of Anchorage, it’s two days for reasonable requests, for the state, that deadline jumps to 10 working days. Herz said, in reality, these deadlines are only as good as your persistence and the responsiveness of whoever you’re asking.

Making a public records request:

“I’m all for simplicity and really under the law all that it takes to file the records request is telling someone what you want and referring to the fact that you’re asking under the Alaska Public Records Act and and or whatever municipal code or statute that might be relevant,” Herz said.

Herz leaves the lengthy records request forms behind, and usually opts for a simple email. He brings that simplicity to the request itself, as well. Keeping the request to the exact document he needs, and narrowing what is being asked will ease the workload on the employees fulfilling the request and hopefully make it be processed quicker. Asking for a huge breadth of documents can also bring costs for additional labor. In those cases, Herz says feel free to reach back out to negotiate or see where your request can be narrowed and less burdensome.

Some of the records requests Herz makes:

• Regular correspondence (especially calendars)
• Emails
• Texts (rarely)
• Billing records and invoices
• Hiring paperwork 
• Logs of other requesters

Kyle Hopkins walked through how a tip turned into a records request, and eventually a huge story on misconduct by a state attorney general.

He noted that anytime the government is spending money on something, you’ll usually be able to get information on that. So, when Hopkins heard the attorney general was on unpaid leave, he knew he could find out more and establish a story.

He walked through other work that was made possible through records requests, explaining how simple records requests can both make a story and enhance an already existing story. Hopkins said many of the people he works with on records requests can be difficult and uncooperative. He said three signs that a records request denial is partly B.S. is if it’s cited as a personal matter, they use the privacy clause of the constitution and can’t find a specific exemption to cite and if there is an extremely costly bill or timeline given. 

To learn more, find the recorded talk at the top of the article.