Public record request form
Click here to download the public record request form for the state of California.
As the attached document itself states, “under the California Public Records Law, California Government Code §6251, Oakland City Ordinance No. 12483, commonly known as the “Sunshine Ordinance” and the Constitution of the State of California as amended by the passage of Prop 59 on Nov. 3, 2004,” citizens have a right to any public document by law. Use this form to request public documents.
Please note, when describing the document or record you are requesting, it is important to be very specific. If you can, find out the exact name of the document that has the information you are looking for and state that in the description. The more specific you are, the faster the process of getting the document will go and the more likely it is that you will actually find a document with the information you want in it. The public record request form is deceptively simple, but still infinitely useful.
If you are dealing with the University of California: before using this form, try to find the information online first, and if that doesn’t work, talk to a public information officer (PIO) and ask them to help you find the form. The author’s hesitation to tell you to file a public information quest whenever the mood strikes you is due to her assumption that you and each of your many friends will be so excited about the idea of requesting public records that some poor individual in a cubicle will be flooded with so many requests s/he simply can’t process them in a reasonable amount of time. The author of this post found herself in a situation once where she and many of her peers had sent such an onslaught of information requests to the individual who handles them for UC Berkeley that he was completely overwhelmed and none of the requests went through.
The First Amendment Project is a great resource if you have further questions about how to get your eager hands on some glorious public records. The author recommends you go to their resources page.
