Case Study: City of Puyallup achieves streamlined records request management and improved efficiency with NextRequest

How this suburb in Western Washington upgraded their records request process

The City of Puyallup adopted NextRequest’s FOIA software to modernize how the City Clerk and Puyallup Police Department handle public records requests. The 84-person police department and its records team were dealing with growing demand (about 2,000 requests per year) while relying on Excel spreadsheets and manual reminders, a time-consuming and error-prone process that made consistent transparency difficult.

NextRequest provided a centralized records-request platform with searchable records, upload and delivery capabilities, and reporting/tracking tools. Over two years the department streamlined workflows, gained accuracy and speed in responding to requests, and improved transparency—results reflected in roughly 9,855 documents downloaded and continued handling of about 2,000 requests annually—replacing manual tracking with NextRequest’s more efficient system.

City of Puyallup

Nichole McNiven

PD Records Supervisor