Part 2: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – The Need for Redaction

Last week I posted a write-up on how document capture helps agencies respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Because FOIA requests continue to be paper intensive and requires searching for paper documents to satisfy a request, many agencies are making investments into document imaging for the purpose of turning paper into electronic information that can be quickly searched on, accessed, and delivered to the requestor electronically rather than through the mailing of paper documents.

How you turn paper into electronic information is the basis of what the goal is. But let’s not forget one key requirement which is how you will handle the redaction of sensitive data before sending those digital document images out. 

Document Capture Helps Agencies Respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

For those not familiar with FOIA, it stands for Freedom of Information Act, and helps create transparency between government and the public. For example, a citizen may request safety records of a nursing homes or information about bids for capital equipment purchases or other large expenditures. For some agencies, these request can number in the thousands per year and results in millions of documents being delivered.

Challenges with responding to FOIA requests

FOIA requests continue to be paper intensive and requires searching of electronic and paper documents to satisfy a request.  This has created some serious inefficiencies within agencies when responding to these FOIA requests including: