When the City of Wichita fulfills records requests, it should make those records available to everyone.
When governmental agencies like the City of Wichita fulfill records requests, they could also publish the records on their websites. When records are supplied electronically to requestors, this is an additional simple (and low cost) step that would leverage the city’s effort and increase its value.
Some federal agencies do this. For example at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, there is a page titled FOIA Library. An example entry on this page is titled “Executive Orders on Travel Records.” The explanation for this is “Contains all records released in response to requests and/or litigation pertaining to Executive Orders on Travel.” On that page are downloadable documents that were created in response to records requests.
This does not need to be a complicated endeavor. Off-the-shelf solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive are easy to use and inexpensive. Google and other search engines will automatically index the documents.
Posting fulfilled records requests is an easy way for the City of Wichita to start increasing transparency of its operations. Let’s get started, Mayor Whipple.
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