FOIA stands for Freedom Of Information Act. When one of the auditors says they’re going to “FOIA” something they mean that they will be requesting an open records request to retrieve that information. You can read the official government website about FOIA here. I highly recommend you also read the Wikipedia page about it which states:
The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. Wikipedia
Issuing an FOIA request is another way to exercise our rights an to keep government officials and their actions accountable and transparent. Arguably everything that happens in government is available for open records request.
Of course, there are ways to make some information unavailable and the administrators of said data would be the first line of deciding and enforcing those exceptions. Exceptions may include that the data is currently locked due to a pending investigation or criminal case, or the information has been redacted, sealed or falls under some other legal restriction.
Each government entity or location has their own process to fulfill your requests for information, but pretty much everyone that is subject to the FOIA has to abide by certain rules. One of the rules speaks about the timeliness of the response for open records and the other speaks about the omission of certain records.
I believe the entity has 10 days to reply with the information requested, or with specific reasons explaining why the request for said records cannot be fulfilled in a timely manner or at all. There may also be administrative and/or nominal fees associated with the open records request.
Items people often request include:
- Body cam or dashcam footage for a period of time, or related to a police officer’s actions.
- Security cam for lobbies, foyers and other public areas managed by a government entity.
- Documentation about employee policies, code of conduct, etc.
- Some financials, like city budget, staff compensation, bonuses, etc.
- Some communications, such as txt messages, emails, or radio interactions.
Notice this! Many government entities and offices may not be used to the idea that they have to fulfill FOIA requests and in many cases, they will make it nearly impossible to fulfill the request. You may need to follow a chain of FOIA requests just to get the information you want. For example, you may need the records to show a particular officer’s whereabouts during a certain time frame. The records office may ask you to provide full information about the officer before they fulfill your request, in which case you may need to first issue an FOIA request to obtain the officer’s information, then submit the request you actually wanted.
