Guidelines For Access to Public Records

Public records maintained by the California Department of Justice will be available for inspection by members of the public pursuant to the following procedures:

1. Public records maintained by the department shall be available for inspection during the regular business hours of the department.
   
   
2. Requests for inspection or copying of public records:
   
   
   1. Should be specific, focused and not interfere with the ordinary business operations of the department. The operational functions of the department will not be suspended to permit inspection of records during periods in which such records are reasonably required by department personnel in the performance of their duties. If the request requires review of numerous records, a mutually agreeable time should be established for the inspection of the records.
      
      
   2. Should be directed to the office, division, branch, or section of the department that maintains the desired records. If the requestor does not know where the desired records are maintained, the request for inspection should be directed to the Information Practices Coordinator in the Administrative Services Division of the Attorney General for routing to the appropriate official.
      
      
   3. Should sufficiently describe records so that identification, location and retrieval of the records can be achieved by department personnel.
      
      
   4. Should be made in writing unless the request involves records which are maintained by the department for the purpose of immediate public inspection.
3. The department may refuse to disclose any records which are exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act. (See e.g, Gov. Code, § 6254.)
   
   
4. Physical inspection of the records shall be permitted within the department's offices and under the conditions determined by the department. Upon either the completion of the inspection or the oral request of department personnel, the person conducting the inspection shall relinquish physical possession of the records. Persons inspecting department records shall not destroy, mutilate, deface, alter, or remove any such records from the department. The department reserves the right to have departmental personnel present during the inspection of records in order to prevent the loss or destruction of records.
   
   
5. Upon any request for a copy of records, other than records the has determined to be exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act, department personnel shall provide copies of the records to any person upon payment of a fee covering costs of duplication.
   
   
6. A copy of these guidelines shall be posted in a conspicuous public place in each office of the Department of Justice, and a copy thereof shall be made available free of charge to any person requesting such copy.
   
   Revised August 8, 1995