KVUE
Author: Grace Arnis
Published: 8:28 AM CDT August 24, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department (APD) is dealing with a backlog of public information requests, according to a report by the Austin Monitor.

The report states that 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 Austin Monitor reports that the Office of the City Auditor found that "in general, the city needs to improve the quality and turnaround time for information requests, which are required by state law to be completed promptly and equally" and that other findings of the audit report showed that the City is "inconsistent in its procedures to respond to requests."

To address those issues, the office recommended centralizing the management of public information requests to create consistency, devoting more resources to fulfill requests properly, developing a special plan to eliminate the backlog of unfilled requests and improving training and communication around the handling of public information requests.

To learn more, read the Austin Monitor's full report.