AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department (APD) is dealing with a backlog of public information requests.
A recent City of Austin audit revealed the department had a backlog of more than 20,000 requests. The audit said some requests have had to wait more than a year to receive a response.
The audit also found that APD has far less public information staff to handle the requests than the rest of the city, despite receiving roughly twice as many requests each year compared to all other departments.
The Office of the City Auditor found that the City as a whole needs to adopt "a more proactive and consistent approach to providing public information," in part because public information request are required by state law to be completed promptly and equally.
To address those issues, the office recommended centralizing the management of all City public information requests to create consistency, devoting more resources to fulfill requests promptly and in accordance with applicable laws, developing a special plan to eliminate the backlog of unfilled requests and improving training and communication around the handling of public information requests.
Read the full audit report to learn more.