About OpenRECORDS
OpenRECORDS is a quick, simple way for you to submit a public records request to a New York City Agency.
Most information on this site is public. Your contact information, and most personal information that may be contained in government documents will not be made available to the public.
What is OpenRECORDS?
OpenRECORDS is a quick, simple way for individuals to submit Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to a NYC agency. The web application also allows government employees to manage, respond to, and fulfill incoming requests. By providing more information about records requests, members of the public may find what they need without having to create a new public record request.
Why aren't all documents uploaded on OpenRECORDS?
City agencies will not publicly release records or information that violates your right to privacy. City agencies will not make records available that have been exempted from disclosure by Federal, State, or Local statute, including records that would impair contract awards or collective bargaining negotiations, are trade secrets, or are compiled for law enforcement purposes and if disclosed would interfere with investigations or judicial proceedings, deprive a person to a fair trial, identify a confidential source, reveal investigative techniques, or endanger a person's life. Records such as reports and data will be posted to the portal 20 business days after they are sent directly to the requester.
History of OpenRECORDS (Previously RecordTrac)
The 2013 Code for America fellows created RecordTrac for the City of Oakland in response to public complaints that people did not know what happened after submitting FOIL requests and that the response time was too long. By making the process transparent, requesters could know when their requests were fulfilled. In 2014, the Department of Records and Information Services and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications began working with the open source code from the Oakland application to create additional features and functionality required to meet the FOIL needs of New York City agencies. The resulting FOIL portal is part of Mayor de Blasio's overall initiative for transparency in government. The initial beta version of OpenRecords was released in March 2015 for use with eight pilot agencies. The current version 2.1 was released in August 2017 and is used by 38 agencies, with more to be added on a regular basis. The DORIS development team rewrote all of the code to increase the stability and robustness of the application.
Harvard Ash Center Bright Ideas Award 2017
“Bright Ideas is an initiative that recognizes creative and promising government programs and partnerships. The initiative is offered through the Innovations in Government Program, a program of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. For more information, please visit http://innovationsaward.harvard.edu/BrightIdeas.cfm
Center for Digital Government’s Best of NY Awards winner 2018
“Presented by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government, in partnership with the state of New York, the Best of New York Awards recognize state and local government organizations for their standout contributions, best practices and innovations in information technology that improve citizen services and internal operations. For more information, please visit http://www.govtech.com/cdg/best-of-new-york/Best-of-New-York-Awards-2018---Winners-Announced.htmlm