California Public Records Act: The 10-Day Rule, Fees, and Police Records

The California Public Records Act gives every person the right to inspect state and local government records. Government Code section 7922.535(a) requires an agency to determine within 10 days whether it holds disclosable records and to notify you of that determination. A determination is not the same thing as delivery.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article presents general legal information and has not been reviewed by a licensed California attorney.

This page covers California state and local records. Federal agencies are governed by the federal Freedom of Information Act instead; see how to file a FOIA request. For a fifty-state comparison, see the public records laws by state hub.

What the California Public Records Act is, and why the citation changed

The California Public Records Act, usually abbreviated CPRA, is the state's open-records law. It applies to state agencies, cities, counties, school districts, special districts, and most other local bodies.

The most common error in writing about California records law is citing the wrong statute. For decades the CPRA lived at Government Code section 6250 and following. Assembly Bill 473, enacted in 2021 and operative January 1, 2023, moved the entire act without substantive change into a new Division 10 of Title 1 of the Government Code, running from section 7920.000 to section 7931.000. Section 7920.000 itself states that the division may be cited as the California Public Records Act.

The old numbering is repealed. As of August 2026, a request letter, a denial letter, or an online guide citing section 6250 or section 6254 is citing something that no longer exists. The substance largely carried over, so the underlying rules did not change, but using the current numbers avoids an easy dismissal.

Where the old and new numbering matter most:

Who can request California public records

Anyone. Government Code section 7922.525(a) provides:

"Public records are open to inspection at all times during the office hours of a state or local agency and every person has a right to inspect any public record, except as otherwise provided."

There is no residency requirement, no citizenship requirement, and no requirement that you identify yourself or explain what you plan to do with the records. An agency may ask, and you may decline to answer. The one place purpose legitimately enters is where a specific statute conditions access on status, such as certain victim or party access provisions elsewhere in California law.

You also do not need to use a form, and you do not need to put an ordinary inspection request in writing. Writing is still the better practice, because the 10-day determination clock and any later dispute both depend on being able to show what you asked for and when.

The 10-day rule, and what it actually promises

This is the single most misunderstood feature of California's law, and getting it right saves a lot of frustration.

Government Code section 7922.535(a) provides:

"Each agency, upon a request for a copy of records, shall, within 10 days from receipt of the request, determine whether the request, in whole or in part, seeks copies of disclosable public records in the possession of the agency and shall promptly notify the person making the request of the determination and the reasons therefor."

What the agency owes you within 10 calendar days is a determination: a statement of whether it has disclosable records responsive to your request and, if it is withholding, why. What it does not owe you within 10 days is the records themselves. Production follows within a reasonable period, and for a large request that can be considerably longer.

The statute allows an extension of up to 14 additional days in defined unusual circumstances, which the agency must invoke in writing with the reasons and the date a determination is expected. Unusual circumstances are things like the need to search separate facilities, the volume of records, or the need to consult another agency, not ordinary workload.

Two practical implications:

• A response saying "we received your request and will respond within 30 days" is not a determination. It is an acknowledgment. If the tenth day passes without a determination, follow up in writing citing section 7922.535(a) and ask for the determination specifically.
• Ask for rolling production. Agencies will often release records in batches as they are reviewed rather than holding everything until the last document is cleared, and asking for that in the original request is usually enough.

Fees under the CPRA

California's fee rule is one of the most requester-friendly in the country, and it is narrow in a way agencies sometimes overlook.

Government Code section 7922.530(a) requires an agency, on a request that reasonably describes an identifiable record, to make the records promptly available "upon payment of fees covering direct costs of duplication, or a statutory fee if applicable."

Direct cost of duplication means the cost of making the copy: paper, toner, and the pro rata share of the machine and the operator's time actually spent duplicating. It does not include the cost of searching for the record, reviewing it for exemptions, or redacting it. That last point is where the biggest fee disputes arise, because search and review time can dwarf duplication cost and is not chargeable in the ordinary case. There is one narrow exception, at Government Code section 7922.575, which shifts the cost to the requester where "[t]he request would require data compilation, extraction, or programming to produce the record." That covers building a query or a custom export out of a database, not the ordinary work of finding and reviewing documents the agency already has.

Bring your own camera. Section 7922.530(b) is easy to miss and genuinely valuable. A requester inspecting records on agency premises may use their own equipment, including a phone camera or portable scanner, to photograph or copy the records without charge, provided the activity does not damage the materials or compromise the agency's computer systems. Subdivision (c) lets the agency impose reasonable limits to protect records and avoid unreasonable burden on operations. Inspecting in person and photographing what you need is, for many requests, the cheapest route to a complete set.

California has no general public-interest or media fee waiver. Because the fee ceiling is already limited to duplication cost, that matters less here than in states that charge for search and review. Asking for electronic delivery of records that already exist electronically usually reduces the charge to nothing.

Police records, body camera video, and critical incidents

California moved further than most states on peace officer records, and the rules live outside the CPRA itself even though they operate through it.

Penal Code section 832.7(b) makes specified categories of peace officer and custodial officer records disclosable to the public under the CPRA. Subdivision (b)(1) covers:

• Records relating to an incident involving the discharge of a firearm at a person by a peace officer or custodial officer.
• Records relating to an incident involving a use of force that resulted in death or in great bodily injury.
• Records relating to a sustained finding of sexual assault involving a member of the public.
• Records relating to a sustained finding of dishonesty, including false statements, filing false reports, destroying, falsifying, or concealing evidence, or perjury.
• Records relating to a sustained finding of conduct involving prejudice or discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics.
• Records relating to a sustained finding that an officer made an unlawful arrest or conducted an unlawful search.

Section 832.7(b)(11) requires that these records be provided at the earliest possible time and no later than 45 days from the date of a request, subject to the delay provisions in subdivision (b)(8), which allow deferral during an active criminal investigation and during an administrative investigation within stated outer limits.

Government Code section 7923.625 governs video and audio recordings of critical incidents, meaning recordings depicting a peace officer's discharge of a firearm at a person or a use of force resulting in death or great bodily injury. Disclosure may be delayed for no longer than 45 calendar days after the date the agency knew or reasonably should have known of the incident, where release would substantially interfere with an active investigation. After that, delay may continue up to one year on a showing of interference, and beyond one year only on clear and convincing evidence, with the agency required to reassess and notify the requester every 30 days. The agency may redact where the public interest in withholding a portion clearly outweighs the interest in disclosure, provided redaction does not prevent a viewer from understanding what happened. Subjects of a recording and their representatives have their own access rights.

Taken together, this is a genuinely strong framework, but it is also the area where agencies most often assert delay. Cite the section numbers when you request, and ask the agency to state in writing which delay provision it is relying on and the date it will reassess.

For the general question of emergency call recordings, see our explainer on whether 911 calls are public records.

How to file a California Public Records Act request

There is no statewide portal. Requests go to the agency holding the record, and many California agencies now run their own online request systems.

1. Address the request to the agency's records coordinator or custodian of records. For cities and counties, the clerk's office is the usual starting point.
2. Cite the current statute. Reference the California Public Records Act, Gov. Code section 7920.000 et seq., and cite section 7922.535 when you ask for the determination.
3. Describe records, not questions. An agency is not required to answer questions or create records. Name the record type, custodian, and date range.
4. Ask for the determination expressly. Say that you expect the determination required by section 7922.535(a) within 10 days.
5. Ask for electronic copies where records exist electronically, and ask for rolling production on larger requests.
6. Offer to inspect in person and photograph records under section 7922.530(b) if the quoted fee is high.
7. Keep the sent date. Every deadline runs from receipt.

Our public records request generator will build a CPRA letter with the current post-2023 citations. It runs in your browser and stores nothing.

When California denies a request

California has no records ombudsman and no binding administrative appeal. There is no state commission that can order an agency to release records, which makes California's model court-only in the same way Arizona's and Florida's are.

Government Code section 7923.100 supplies the remedy:

"Whenever it is made to appear, by verified petition to the superior court of the county where the records or some part thereof are situated, that certain public records are being improperly withheld from a member of the public, the court shall order the officer or other person charged with withholding the records to disclose those records or show cause why that person should not do so."

The fee-shifting rule is what makes this practical. Section 7923.115(a) provides that if the requester prevails in litigation filed under the chapter, "the court shall award court costs and reasonable attorney's fees to the requester," paid by the public agency. That is mandatory, not discretionary, and it is the reason California agencies frequently release records once a petition is threatened credibly. Subdivision (b) runs the other way for a clearly frivolous case, awarding costs and fees to the agency.

Before litigating, work the informal path. Ask the agency to identify the specific exemption and the specific records withheld. Ask for a redacted version. Narrow the request. Escalate to the agency counsel or the elected body's clerk. Consult a California attorney before filing a petition.

Vital records are not CPRA requests

California birth, death, and marriage certificates come from the California Department of Public Health Vital Records office or the county recorder, under eligibility rules that limit certified copies to authorized persons. A CPRA request will not produce one.

If that is what you need, start with our guide to California death records rather than filing under section 7922.525.

A note on scope

This page describes the California Public Records Act as of August 2026. It is general legal information, not legal advice, and it does not catalogue every exemption in Division 10 or the many confidentiality statutes elsewhere in California law. Agency practices and fee schedules vary. For a specific denial, consult an attorney licensed in California.