Public records, requested properly
Public records requests, at scale.
Via Record is a public records practice built as software: the right custodian for every public body, a request written to that jurisdiction's records law, sent, tracked and followed up until the record arrives, and the answers from every body in a campaign gathered into one dataset.
What it does
- Knows who to ask.
A register of records custodians for public bodies, built from the public web and kept current by a crawler, so a request goes to the office that answers it rather than a general inbox.
- Asks in the law's own terms.
Each request is written to the records act that binds the body it goes to, with that act's deadline, fee rules and the wording its custodians expect. The law library behind it is public at law.ungovr.org/records.
- Sends, tracks and follows up.
Every request is a mail thread with its statutory clock: a reminder when a deadline passes, a follow-up when a body goes quiet, and the response filed with the record it produced.
- Runs campaigns.
The same question to every county sheriff, every school district or every city in a state, with the responses collected into one table you can analyze and publish.
Running a records campaign?
If you are a nonprofit that needs to issue a public records request campaign, write to us. Tell us the question, the public bodies you need it answered by, and when you need it.
Via Record is a Via Tabula project, in development. This page describes the product; it is not yet open for sign-up. The records law library it is built on is already public.