How the Access to Public Records Act Works in Indiana

Indiana's open records law is the Access to Public Records Act, Indiana Code 5-14-3, and it is explained and policed by the Office of the Public Access Counselor. The office exists because of a press investigation: Governor Frank O'Bannon created it by executive order in 1998 after a statewide collaboration of seven newspapers found great obstacles in obtaining government information in the state, and the General Assembly put it in statute the following year. Its statement of powers covers training officials, educating the public, answering informal inquiries, issuing advisory opinions on request unless a lawsuit has already been filed on the matter, and recommending changes to the legislature.

A request must identify the record with reasonable particularity. The Act does not define the phrase, and the counselor's handbook records the office's repeated view that where a public agency cannot ascertain what records a requester is seeking, the request likely has not been made with reasonable particularity, while noting that the policy of the Act favours disclosure and the burden of proving nondisclosure sits with the agency. Records are available during the agency's regular business hours, and compiling and copying them may not unreasonably interfere with the agency's normal work. For Indiana records held locally, see the Indiana county pages.

  • Twenty four hours or seven days: in person and telephone requests get a response within a day, posted, faxed and emailed ones within seven calendar days.
  • A response, not the records: the deadline is for acknowledgement; production follows in a reasonable period given the circumstances.
  • Ten cents a page: black and white copies, twenty five cents in colour, with inspection free and labour and overhead excluded from cost.
  • New since July 2026: agencies may screen through portals, prioritise residents, surcharge out of state and automated requests, and refuse suspected scraping or phishing.

Written by SearchSystems.net from Indiana's own systems: the Indiana Public Access Counselor, the counselor's statement of what the office does, the Handbook on Indiana's Public Access Laws, the counselor's overview of the changes made by House Enrolled Act 1360, the counselor's advisory opinions, the formal complaint form, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

The two clocks, and what they actually require

Indiana sets its deadline by how the request arrives. Where a requester is physically present in the office of the public agency, telephones, or asks for enhanced access to a document, the agency must respond within twenty four hours after any employee of the agency receives the request. Where the request is posted, faxed or emailed, the agency has seven calendar days from receipt. The handbook is blunt about what that buys: the Act requires only a response and not the actual production of records within the specified period, and all records must then be produced in a reasonable period of time considering the facts and circumstances.

Its own worked example is a person appearing at a county auditor's office to inspect the minutes of the council's last ten meetings, where the auditor need not produce anything on demand but must at a minimum orally acknowledge the request within twenty four hours. The practical consequence is that an Indiana requester should treat the quick deadline as a receipt, then pin the agency to a date for the records themselves.

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Refusals, and what a lawful one looks like

Where a record is a public record of a public agency, is not exempt and has been identified with reasonable particularity, the agency cannot refuse it. Where a record carries both disclosable and nondisclosable material, the agency must separate or redact the confidential part and release the rest. The form of the refusal follows the form of the request: an oral request made by telephone or in person may be refused orally, but a request made in writing, by fax or by email, or an oral request that is renewed in writing after being turned down, may only be refused in writing, and that written refusal must give the specific statutory reason for nondisclosure together with the name and title of the person responsible for it. A refusal naming nobody, or citing nothing, is defective on its face.

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What it costs, and the ceilings the legislature set

There is no charge for inspecting records or for searching for them unless some statute authorises one. For copies from an executive branch state agency, the Department of Administration has fixed ten cents a page in black and white and twenty five cents in colour, and payment may be required in advance; the judicial and legislative branches set their own rates. For every other covered agency, the fiscal body must adopt a fee schedule that does not exceed the actual cost of copying or certification, and the copying fee may not exceed the greater of ten cents for black and white, twenty five cents for colour, or the agency's actual cost, with actual cost defined as the paper plus the per page cost of using the copier, excluding labour and overhead.

Certification is capped at five dollars a document, fees must be uniform for all purchasers, and a copy of a law enforcement recording may not cost more than one hundred and fifty dollars under 5-14-3-8(g)(1).

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House Enrolled Act 1360, and why the law changed

Governor Mike Braun signed House Enrolled Act 1360, Public Law 97-2026, on March 4, 2026, and it took effect on July 1, 2026, having passed the House 95 to nothing and the Senate 48 to nothing. The counselor's published overview explains the reason: agencies reported a rising volume of bulk requests that appeared to come from automated sources rather than individuals, together with phishing attempts arriving as emailed records requests, and the growth of data scraping put significant strain on agency resources.

The Act answers that in five parts. Agencies may set up an electronic portal under 5-14-3-3.3 that uses a CAPTCHA or equivalent to confirm a human is asking, verifies the requester's physical address, tests Indiana residency, and automatically tracks submissions suspected of automation or linked to known scraping or phishing sources. Under 5-14-3-8.1(a) an agency may give priority to Indiana residents and to requests made for civic, journalistic, academic or personal use where the requester clearly states the purpose, and under 8.1(b) it may delay out of state and automated requests as necessary to prevent disruption of core functions.

A supplemental fee may be charged on out of state and automated requests, tied to actual cost and capped at twenty five cents a page or twenty five dollars an hour of staff time under 5-14-3-8(n), waivable in the public interest under 8(o), and applied consistently if adopted at all.

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Scraping, phishing and the seven day report

The new law defines two terms. Data scraping means use of an automated system to extract data from websites and other internet accessible sources, at 5-14-3-2(d). Phishing means a method of obtaining information through fraud, where the sender hides or misrepresents who they are to trick the recipient into sharing information or granting access, at 5-14-3-2(p). Cybersecurity risk is deliberately left undefined. Under 5-14-3-3.3(b) an agency may refuse a request it suspects of being data scraping or phishing, or a request for electronic transmission that may expose its systems or data to unauthorised use or alteration or otherwise jeopardise their security, and where it does so it must tell the Public Access Counselor of the request and the statutory basis no later than seven days after receiving it.

Suspicion of automation alone is not a ground for refusal; an agency that merely suspects a request is automated must still answer it, and report it under 5-14-3-11. The counselor's guidance lists the warning signs agencies are being taught to watch for, among them exhaustive structured datasets, identical requests arriving in bursts within minutes, machine style formatting with digits substituted for letters, sequential slices through numbered parcel or docket ranges, database level exports in JSON or XML, and demands for employee contact lists including login details under urgent language with a link to a deceptive domain.

A genuine requester avoids most of that simply by asking for identifiable records in ordinary prose and saying who they are. Separately, under 5-14-3-4(e) an agency may now refuse a request made by a party to pending or ongoing litigation where it duplicates a discovery request that person has already made in that litigation.

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The counselor, the complaint and the fee rule nobody should miss

Anyone refused access may file a formal complaint with the Public Access Counselor, and it must be filed within thirty days after the denial, a complaint counting as filed on the date the office receives it or the date of the postmark where receipt is later. The office forwards it to the agency, asks for a response, and has thirty days to issue an advisory opinion, reduced to seven days where the complaint has priority under the office's administrative rules.

Filing does not pause any limitation period for a lawsuit. Short of a complaint, an informal inquiry gets a quicker answer and often a telephone call to the agency without a written opinion. Then comes the rule that decides whether litigation is worth starting: a person refused access may sue in the circuit or superior court of the county where the refusal happened, the agency carries the burden of proving the record falls outside the Act, and a prevailing plaintiff is awarded reasonable attorney fees, court costs and litigation expenses, but those fees and costs are not available to someone who did not contact the counselor before filing unless they can show the action was necessary.

A court may also impose a civil penalty where records are withheld with the specific intent to break the Act, under 5-14-3-9.5. One caution from the office itself: everything sent to the Public Access Counselor is a public record unless a statutory exemption covers it.

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Questions about public records requests in Indiana

How fast must an Indiana agency reply?
Within twenty four hours where the request is made in person, by telephone or for enhanced access, and within seven calendar days where it arrives by post, fax or email; that deadline is for a response, with the records produced in a reasonable period afterwards.
What does an Indiana copy cost?
Ten cents a page in black and white and twenty five cents in colour, or the agency's actual cost where higher, with actual cost limited to paper plus the per page cost of the copier and excluding labour and overhead; inspection itself is free.
Can an Indiana agency refuse a request as automated?
Not on suspicion of automation alone, which must still be answered and reported to the counselor, but it may refuse requests it suspects of data scraping or phishing, or that would endanger its systems, and must notify the counselor within seven days.
Do out of state requesters pay more in Indiana?
They can. Since July 1, 2026 an agency may charge a supplemental fee on out of state and automated requests, tied to actual cost and capped at twenty five cents a page or twenty five dollars an hour of staff time, and may waive it in the public interest.
How precise does the request have to be?
It must identify the record with reasonable particularity, which the counselor has repeatedly read as failing where the agency cannot work out which records are being sought, although the Act's policy favours disclosure and the agency bears the burden of justifying a refusal.
Should I complain to the counselor before suing?
Yes. A formal complaint must be filed within thirty days of the refusal and is answered within thirty days, or seven if it has priority, and a plaintiff who never contacted the office loses the right to attorney fees and costs in a successful court action unless the suit was necessary.

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Indiana's other public records guides on this site are the Indiana background check guide for the State Police limited criminal history service, the Indiana court records guide for the statewide case search, the Indiana arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Indiana county pages for every county office.