Greetings again, reporters! This TFR kind of only applies to U.S. reporters… sorry, international folks.
If you are a reporter in the U.S., you have probably filed a FOIA request (or a state equivalent) before. Well, earlier this year I found myself having to send a FOIA to all 50 states plus a few more agencies. Yikes.
Luckily, MuckRock to the rescue.
There are a few FOIA tools out there, but what made MuckRock stand out was the team of actual human beings working for you. I sent them a spreadsheet of 56 agencies, and… Bam! 56 FOIAs sent, even if it had to be over fax, snail mail or a phone call(!).
This does, admittedly, lead to a bit of weirdness. At one point, they mailed in a check for payment, signed by a MuckRock staffer but with contact info at my email address. I think the recipient was a little confused.
But it does accomplish a lot in a short time, and if you’re doing big public records projects like mine, I would definitely recommend it. You can do all this for $5 per request or $40 a month.
The key to Muckrock, too, is that it tracks all of your requests in a neat little interface, so that’s good if you’re like me and lose track without spreadsheets and reminders and stuff. FOIA the leaders, reporters!