The Public Records Act is available to view here and allows citizens to request copies of government records unless those records are specifically exempted by law.
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A "public record" is any state or local record related to the conduct of government or the performance of a governmental function, prepared or used or retained by any state or local agency.
If you are looking to make a request for police or court records please contact the Anacortes Police Department or Anacortes Municipal Court respectively. If you wish to make a request for the City of Anacortes, please fill out this online form.
General city records requests are received by the City Records Coordinator and Records Officer. From there, you request is set to the appropriate department(s) for a search for records. After a search is conducted, you will be contacted by the Records Coordinator. Police and court records are released directly from their respective departments.
It's helpful to include as much information as you can, such as document titles, specific dates, times, addresses, and case numbers allows city staff to more effectively locate documents pertaining to your request.
If your request contains a variety of records from multiple departments, please select which departments you believe will have records, or "other" and "I don't know." The public records officer will help to determine which departments need to receive the request. Please note, if your request involves the Police Department as well as additional departments, your request for police records will be treated as a separate request.
No, your request becomes a public record and can be requested and/or viewed by others.
If records contain information that may affect others and may be exempt from disclosure, the City may send a notice to those parties informing them of the request prior to providing the records to the requestor.
If a requestor fails to fulfill their obligations to inspect, respond to clarification from City staff, or make any payment within 30 calendar days, the City may close the request and consider it abandoned.