Records requests reach your Records Requests queue through two channels: the public portal and email. This article explains both paths, what happens automatically when a request arrives, and what you need to do next.
Two Intake Channels
1. Public Portal
A member of the public visits your agency's portal and fills out the request form with their name, email, and a description of the records they need.
What happens:
The request appears in your Records Requests queue with a To-Do status.
The requester receives an automatic acknowledgment email.
The AI agent begins searching for matching records.
2. Email
Someone forwards a records request email to your agency's Records Requests inbox address. This could be staff forwarding a request they received, or an auto-forwarding rule from your records mailbox.
What happens:
Records Requests creates a new request from the email content.
If the email has PDF attachments (e.g. a formal FOIA form), those are parsed too.
The request appears in your queue with a To-Do status.
The AI agent begins searching for matching records.
No acknowledgment email is sent to the requester.
Email-forwarded requests do not trigger an acknowledgment to the requester. If your agency requires a confirmation, you'll need to send that separately. See Communicating with Requesters.
What the AI Agent Does
When a request comes in through either channel, the AI agent:
Reads the request description (and any attached PDFs).
Searches across your agency's media (call audio, radio traffic, CAD records, etc.) for matches.
Attaches any results it finds to the request.
Shows a confidence indicator for how sure it is about the match.
When you open the request, you'll see what the agent found. If it looks right, you can move straight to release. If not, you search manually.
Multi-Part Requests
Some requests ask for multiple types of records (e.g. "all radio traffic AND CAD logs from March 1"). The agent searches for all of them, but the results appear as one set on the request.
Review the results against each part of what the requester asked for. If the agent only found some of what was requested, use manual search to find the rest.
The Clock Starts Now
In most jurisdictions, the legal deadline for fulfilling a records request starts when the request is received, not when someone opens it. Every request that lands in your queue is already on the clock.
Statutory deadlines vary:
Some states require fulfillment within 3 business days
Federal FOIA allows 20 business days
Your agency may have its own policy that's stricter
Check your queue regularly so requests don't age past their deadline. See Tracking Deadlines and Compliance for how to monitor this.
Next Steps
Once you see a request in your queue:
Open it and review the agent results. See Fulfill and Release a Public Records Request for the full workflow.
If redaction is needed, see Redacting Records Before Release.