How to Get a Police Report in Louisiana (2026 Guide)

Louisiana routes a crash report through Louisiana State Police (LSP) or the investigating parish or municipal agency, while a general incident report is a separate request handled under the Louisiana Public Records Act. Both records, and body camera footage of an incident, sit inside the same statute, R.S. 44:3, which is Louisiana's general law enforcement records exemption. This page covers how to get each type of report, what R.S. 44:3 actually says, and where body camera access fits in.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Getting a Crash Report in Louisiana

Louisiana crash reports investigated by LSP are purchased online at lsp.org, under the link labeled LSP Statewide Crash Reports and Photos, for $11.50 per report, payable by Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. You can also buy a report in person at any LSP Troop office. LSP advises allowing roughly ten to fifteen business days after the crash, and its ordering system recommends waiting fifteen or more business days to be safe, before the report and any photos are ready.

Fatal crash reports are handled differently: LSP's crash-report system states plainly that fatal crash reports are not available online and must be purchased in person at the investigating Troop.

Access to the report itself is restricted. R.S. 32:398(I) makes Louisiana crash reports confidential and exempt from the state's general Public Records Act, R.S. 44:1 et seq., releasing the report only to the categories of requesters the statute enumerates, which include an involved party, that party's insurer, and an attorney representing a party. If your crash was investigated by a parish sheriff's office or a municipal police department rather than LSP, contact that agency directly, since many local agencies run their own crash-report request process outside the LSP system. For more on fault rules and deadlines after a Louisiana crash, see our Louisiana car accident laws page.

Getting an Incident Report in Louisiana

A general incident report, for anything other than a traffic crash, is requested under the Louisiana Public Records Act, R.S. 44:32, from the custodian of records at the agency that responded. New Orleans Police Department runs a 24/7 online portal at nola.nextrequest.com, which requires the item number from the responding officer's Form 026 handout to locate the report. Other parishes and municipalities typically accept a written request by mail, email, or in person to the agency's records division.

The relevant exemption categories sit in R.S. 44:3(A)(1) through (7), which let an agency withhold records tied to pending litigation, a confidential source's identity, security procedures, arrest records still under investigation, and an undercover officer's identity. Louisiana's Public Records Act requires the custodian to notify the requester in writing within three days, excluding weekends and holidays, of whether the record is public or falls under an exemption. There is no single statewide fee schedule; the Commissioner of Administration recommends twenty-five cents per page for state agencies, but local agencies set their own reasonable fee. New Orleans Police Department, specifically, charges fifty cents per page for records outside its own department and fire department holdings. For the state's broader open-records framework, see our Louisiana public records laws page.

Body Camera Footage in Louisiana

Louisiana does not have a standalone body camera statute the way Kentucky or Illinois do. Instead, bodycam access is folded into the state's general law enforcement records exemption, R.S. 44:3(A)(8), which allows a custodian to withhold a video or audio recording generated by an officer's body-worn camera if the custodian finds that releasing it would violate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy. Related procedural requirements on how specific a bodycam request must be sit in R.S. 44:3(I).

Because Louisiana's bodycam rule is a privacy-balancing standard rather than a fixed list of categories, the outcome of a request can vary by agency and by what the footage shows. For more on how that balancing works in practice and how it compares to other states, see our Louisiana body camera laws page and the cluster guide on how to request body camera footage.

Corrections and Other Practical Notes

No primary LSP or parish page describing a formal process for correcting a completed crash report was located; if you spot an error, the practical step is to contact the investigating Troop or agency directly and ask about its supplemental-report or correction process.

R.S. 44:3(A)(8)'s reasonable-expectation-of-privacy standard functions as Louisiana's main redaction hook for bodycam footage involving a juvenile or a crime victim, rather than a separate categorical carve-out written into the statute. For general guidance on filing a new report or reading a completed one, see how to file a police report and how to read a police report. If a case tied to the incident proceeds through the courts, related filings are available through Louisiana court records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about public-records access in the state named above. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney about a specific situation. Fees, forms, and processing times change; confirm current figures with the listed agency before relying on them.

Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.