City of Austin

The City of Austin has launched a new Public Records Center to improve the process for submitting and managing public information requests.

Journalists and members of the public will need to set up a customer account, with their email address and password, in order to submit a request to either the City of Austin or Austin Police Department. Once logged in, they will be able to access and manage their requests, track the progress of current and previous requests, and retrieve files and documents.

The new Public Records Center can be accessed using the existing URLs:
austintexas.gov/public-information-request
austintexas.gov/pir

A new section providing quick access to a range of “trending topics” has been added to help users quickly obtain information and save time by proactively providing information to the public in an easy to find location. The new system is designed to be more efficient and effective, particularly at handling larger amounts of data and information.

Requestors who are logged in can use the My Request Center to check the status of submitted invoices, view any outstanding invoices and edit customer account information. Later this year a new feature will be added to the system to enable users to pay online for any charges they may owe.

A guide to using the new City of Austin Public Records Center is available here.
A similar guide to submitting requests to the Austin Police Department is available here.