Since last Thanksgiving, MuckRock users have filed a collective 14,852 requests – a little over a thousand requests per month, helping release 479,842 pages of documents that were, in most cases, hidden from public view.
But none of that would have been possible without the hard word of dedicated public servants. This holiday, please take a minute to thank a FOIA officer who helped make government open and accountable.
Maybe a records officer waived a fee or helped point you in the direction of the documents you actually wanted. Maybe you were able to get your question answered even when the underlying data might have been technically exempt.
Every day, in hundreds of different ways, Freedom of Information Act staffers and public information officers help ease the process. A quick note letting them know that someone appreciates their work can go a long way — it can go an even longer way if you send it to their boss and let them know a particular staff member was helpful.
MuckRock has a “Thank Agency” feature to make it easy — and if you want us to send a communication to an agency manager, just click “Get Help,” include your note and where you want it to go, and we’ll get it routed to the right place.
If you’d like to help publicly highlight a good public records officer, fill in the form below, and we’ll share the best stories. And from all of us here at MuckRock, thank you for an amazing 2017 and for helping create an amazing transparency community.
