Records Request and Retention Trends for 2026

For many government agencies, responding to records requests is growing more complicated, and processes are facing more scrutiny. Requests arrive with broader scopes, cover more digital channels, and require coordination across different departments. At the same time, residents expect clearer communication, faster responses, and new opportunities to self-serve.

Looking at the year ahead, this blog explores the records requests and retention trends shaping how agencies manage information and respond to requests from residents.

Request Volumes and Complexity Are Climbing

At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has reported multiple record-setting years in a row for public records requests. In fiscal year 2024 alone, federal agencies received more than 1.5 million requests, representing an increase of more than 25% over the previous year.

State and local governments see similar patterns: more requests arriving more frequently and asking for broader collections of materials. In Minot, North Dakota, for example, the police department reported experiencing a 20% to 30% increase in requests over three years.

Complexity grows with volume. A single request may span email archives, shared drives, cloud documents, video footage, and social media content dating back months or years. Each system adds complications to searching, coordination, and reviews, particularly when agencies rely on manual workflows and decentralized recordkeeping. The Election & Voting Information Center’s (EVIC) 2024 Local Election Official Survey found that 64% of local officials say records requests take more time to process than they did at the start of the decade.

One Washington university was required to produce a full year’s worth of direct messages from its various Twitter (now X) accounts to comply with a request from The Chronicle of Higher Education. The school’s Director of Digital Engagement reported that numerous colleagues at other institutions were receiving similarly broad requests.

Why Is the Volume of Requests Rising?

Several factors help explain why agencies continue to see growth in both the number and complexity of public records requests.

Digital Government Generates More Records

Today’s government staff use a wider variety of tools than public servants of the past. They complete their daily work with the help of email, instant messaging apps, cloud-based collaboration tools, project management platforms, and social media accounts. All the while, they’re sharing information with the public through their social feeds, websites, and alert systems. Each channel creates digital records that may be considered public if they document official business.

Filing Requests Is Easier

Many agencies now offer online portals and standardized intake forms that make submitting and tracking requests straightforward for residents. Improved accessibility increases transparency but also contributes to request volume because people who had previously hesitated to file requests may now feel empowered to exercise their access rights.

Elections and News-Making Events Create Surges

Elections, controversial decisions, and breaking news can all trigger significant waves of requests over a short period. Following the 2020 election, election officers in Pennsylvania saw a four-fold increase in public records requests, while officials in South Carolina reported an even more dramatic increase.

Broad FOIA Requests Are Reshaping Workloads

Volume alone does not explain the strain many agencies are feeling. Across state and local governments, a relatively small number of especially large or complex records requests now consume a disproportionate amount of staff time and resources.

EVIC’s 2024 Local Election Official Survey highlights this imbalance. 72% of local officials said a small number of records requests require most of their time, and 62% said unduly burdensome requests significantly affect their ability to do their jobs.

These requests are often broad by design. A requester may seek all communications related to a topic, decision, or time period, rather than a single document or dataset. Fulfilling them requires identifying multiple records managers, searching across departments, coordinating with IT and legal teams, and reviewing large volumes of digital records.

Some municipalities have made structural changes in response to this workload imbalance. Bexar County, Texas, responded to a huge number of requests from a small selection of residents by introducing new rules for responding to “zealous requesters.”

This trend underscores the importance of clear intake processes and consistent visibility into workload distribution. Without those foundations, broad requests will continue to present a burden and distract staff from everyday service.

Backlogs and Delays Draw More Attention

Backlogs can draw scrutiny from oversight bodies and the public. The Government Accountability Office has documented significant FOIA backlogs at the federal level, warned that delays undermine transparency, and called for reforms to improve processing timelines and data quality. In 2024, the federal backlog reached record levels, with just around 27% of complex requests processed within 20 days.

When agencies at any level fall behind, the risk of appeals and audits increases. That scrutiny consumes staff time and diverts resources from everyday resident service. In some states, continued noncompliance or willful withholding of secure records can result in fines or other legal penalties. Missouri’s Sunshine Law, for example, allows courts to impose fines of up to $5,000 against public bodies that knowingly fail to provide qualifying records.

In most cases, however, backlogs reflect structural challenges rather than a lack of effort on the agency’s part. When records are scattered across systems or stored inconsistently, staff must manually reconstruct timelines and context for each request, increasing the likelihood of missed deadlines and incomplete responses. Even in these instances, when delays or omissions are unavoidable, an agency’s reputation may suffer as resident frustration grows.

The Definition of “Public Records” Keeps Evolving

Legal guidance and case law continue to evolve alongside communication tools and techniques. Text messages, chat transcripts, and social media interactions are now considered public records within many municipalities and are increasingly likely to appear in records requests.

For social media accounts, the final version of a post represents just one piece of the official record. Collecting comments, replies, edits, metadata, and deleted content may be necessary to compile a complete record and fully comply with requests.

Courts in states, including Colorado, have held that records do not necessarily lose their public status merely because they reside on personal devices or third-party platforms. Reporting has also raised concerns about the use of encrypted messaging apps like Signal for public business.

This can create policy gaps. A team may have a retention schedule for documents like emails, but weaker guidance for chat, texting, or direct messages on social media accounts. Agencies that lack clear rules about which tools can be used for official business can end up spending more time chasing down records or defending why records are missing.

Resident Expectations for Digital Service Continue to Rise

Residents increasingly expect agencies to offer accessible, user-friendly digital services. These expectations are shaped in part by the private sector. The “Amazon Effect” has led residents to expect clear status updates, predictable timelines, and easy ways to find information without extra back and forth.

Findings from the most recent CivicPlus Resident Satisfaction and Trust survey confirms that digital engagement has become the default for many residents. 72% of respondents said they interact with their local government through digital tools, and 82% say they would rather see legal notices and similar updates online than in print.

Poor digital experiences can also be a contributing factor. When residents cannot find information easily, they may respond by filing additional requests. Additionally, if responses take too long or appear incomplete, residents may file appeals or submit additional requests.

Requesters will continue pushing for a clearer, faster, and more trackable experience. Agencies that depend on manual and paper-based processes will likely feel this pressure the most. Agencies that centralize intake, improve status transparency, and make routine information easier to find will reduce friction for residents and avoidable workloads for staff.

What These Trends Mean for Agencies in 2026

These trends point to a shift in how records requests and retention function inside governments. Rising request volume, broader definitions of public records, and rising expectations for digital service are no longer isolated challenges. They intersect across departments and systems, and they increasingly shape how agencies are evaluated by residents, regulatory bodies, and the media.

As records requests span more channels and involve more coordination, agencies will feel pressure to move beyond manual processes for receiving, tracking, and responding to requests. Teams need clear visibility into where requests come from, who is responsible for searching which systems, and how decisions are documented when records are released or withheld. Without this structure, delays and inconsistencies become more common and harder to explain.

These pressures help explain why many state and local agencies are consolidating how they receive and manage public records requests. CivicPlus^® NextRequest supports this shift with a public request management platform designed to centralize intake, communication, and release workflows. By providing a single portal for requests and a shared system for tracking work across departments, NextRequest helps agencies respond more consistently as request volume and complexity continue to grow.

Check out a self-guided demo to see NextRequest in action.