By Skye Seipp
Austin American-Statesman
Originally published Aug. 24, 2023
If you file an open records request with the Austin Police Department, you might have to wait significantly longer to receive that information than if you sought records from another city department.
An audit found the Police Department has a backlog of nearly 20,000 public information requests, largely because its staff to handle these requests is 20 times smaller than that of the city’s — even though the Police Department receives double the number of requests per year compared with the city.
These findings were presented to the Austin City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday. The audit also found that the lack of a uniform approach to its public information requests gives the appearance that the city is not transparent.