Mississippi Public Records Act: 7 Working Days, Fees, and the Ethics Commission Route

The Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 declares public records to be public property, gives any person the right to inspect and copy them, caps production at seven working days, and lets a denied requester go straight to chancery court without first exhausting the Ethics Commission process.

This page covers Mississippi state and local records under Miss. Code Ann. chapter 61 of Title 25. Federal agency records run under the separate federal Freedom of Information Act: see how to file a FOIA request. For the rules in every other state, start at our public records laws by state hub.

The right and who holds it

Section 25-61-1 names the statute and states the policy: public records must be available for inspection by any person unless the act provides otherwise, and providing access is a duty of each public body. Section 25-61-2 repeats that policy and adds an important instruction for the digital era, requiring that as a public body increases its use of and dependence on electronic record keeping, it "must ensure reasonable access to records electronically maintained."

Section 25-61-5(1)(a) supplies the operative right: all public records "are hereby declared to be public property, and any person shall have the right to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain a reproduction of any public record of a public body in accordance with reasonable written procedures adopted by the public body." No residency or citizenship condition appears.

The definitions are broad. Section 25-61-3(a) defines "public body" to include departments, bureaus, divisions, councils, commissions, committees, boards, agencies and other entities of the state or a political subdivision, any municipal corporation, and the governing board of a charter school authorized by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board. Section 25-61-3(b) defines "public records" to include books, records, papers, accounts, letters, maps, photographs, films, cards, tapes, recordings and any other documentary materials, regardless of physical form, used or retained in the conduct of any business, transaction, work, duty or function of a public body.

Deadlines: seven working days, and the one-day fallback

Mississippi structures its deadline as a limit on what a public body may write into its own rules, which is unusual and worth understanding because it makes the deadline hard to negotiate away.

Seven working days. "No public body shall adopt procedures which will authorize the public body to produce or deny production of a public record later than seven (7) working days from the date of the receipt of the request for the production of the record."

One working day if no procedures exist. If a public body has not adopted written procedures, then the right to inspect, copy or reproduce "shall be provided within one (1) working day after a written request for a public record is made."

The written explanation, and the 14 working day cap. Under section 25-61-5(1)(b), a body unable to produce by the seventh working day "must provide a written explanation to the person making the request stating that the record requested will be produced and specifying with particularity why the records cannot be produced within the seven-day period." Unless the parties mutually agree, or the request involves ongoing competitive sealed proposal negotiations, "in no event shall the date for the public body's production of the requested records be any later than fourteen (14) working days from the receipt by the public body of the original request."

Note the phrasing of that explanation requirement. It is not a notice that the request is denied or delayed indefinitely. It is a written commitment that the record will be produced, plus a particularized reason for the delay.

Denials, and the denial file

Section 25-61-5(3) sets three requirements, and the third is a tool most requesters never use.

• The denial must be in writing.
• It must contain a statement of the specific exemption relied on.
• Each public body must maintain a file of all denials, preserve those denials for not less than three years, and make that file available for inspection or copying during regular office hours to any person on written request.

That last provision means an agency's own record of what it has refused, and on what grounds, is itself a public record. If you are trying to establish that a body systematically withholds a category of material, or you want to see how it has characterized a particular exemption before, the denial file is the place to look.

Section 25-61-5(2) governs partial denials: if a record contains material not exempt under the chapter, the agency must redact the exempt material and make the rest available, and may charge a reasonable fee for that redaction not exceeding actual cost.

Fees, and the absence of a waiver

Section 25-61-7(1) is the general rule. A public body may establish and collect fees "reasonably calculated to reimburse it for, and in no case to exceed, the actual cost of searching, reviewing and/or duplicating and, if applicable, mailing copies of public records." Staff time or contractual services must be billed "at the pay scale of the lowest level employee or contractor competent to respond to the request," and fees are collected in advance of compliance.

Section 25-61-7(2) allows a separate and potentially much higher fee scale for geographic information system data, multipurpose cadastre data and other electronically accessible data, tied to the costs of creating, acquiring and maintaining that system. In setting those fees the public body may consider the type of information requested, the purpose or purposes for which it was requested, and the commercial value of the information. That is the one place in the Mississippi statute where your purpose can lawfully affect what you pay.

There is no fee waiver in the statute. Neither section 25-61-5 nor section 25-61-7 contains an indigency waiver or a public-interest waiver, and none was located elsewhere in chapter 61. Readers coming from federal FOIA, which does have a public-interest waiver, should not assume the same right exists here. The practical steps are to ask the records custodian in writing whether that body has any policy on reducing charges, to ask for a written estimate before authorizing work since payment is collected in advance, to inspect rather than copy where that answers your question, and to narrow the scope. If a fee appears disproportionate, section 25-61-15 makes charging an unreasonable fee a ground for personal civil liability, which gives the point some weight when you raise it.

How to file a Mississippi public records request

1. Ask for the body's written procedures first, or check its website. Section 25-61-5(1)(a) requires public notice of those procedures, and they tell you where to send the request, what it will cost and how the body counts its seven working days. If no procedures exist, your written request triggers the one working day rule instead.
2. Put the request in writing and date it. Both deadline tracks are measured from receipt of a written request.
3. Describe the records specifically: subject, date range, department, and any incident, permit or case number.
4. Ask for a written cost estimate before authorizing work, since fees are collected in advance.
5. Diary the seventh working day. If it passes, the body owes you a written explanation that both commits to production and explains the delay with particularity.
6. Keep every written response. A denial that does not cite a specific exemption is defective under section 25-61-5(3), and that defect is worth naming in a complaint.

Our free FOIA request generator will draft a Mississippi-specific letter with the right citations, and nothing you enter into it is stored or transmitted.

Enforcement: two routes, neither of them mandatory first

Section 25-61-13 gives the Mississippi Ethics Commission authority to enforce the chapter on a complaint filed by any person denied the right granted under section 25-61-5.

The Commission process. The Commission forwards a copy of your complaint to the head of the public body, which has 14 days from receipt to file a response. After the response arrives, or after 14 days pass without one, the Commission may in its discretion dismiss the complaint or set a hearing under its rules. It may order the public body and its individual employees or officials to produce records or take other reasonable measures necessary to comply, and may impose the penalties the chapter authorizes. It may order records produced for private review by the Commission, its staff or a designee, and must complete that private review within 30 days; records held for private review remain exempt from disclosure while in the Commission's custody. The Commission may also mediate, resolve disputes, issue an order where no facts are in dispute, or enter orders the parties agree to.

Chancery court. Any party may petition the chancery court for the county where the public body is located to enforce or appeal a Commission order, and in such an appeal "the chancery court shall conduct a de novo review."

No exhaustion requirement. This is the point most secondhand summaries get wrong. Section 25-61-13 states: "Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit any party from filing a complaint in any chancery court having jurisdiction, nor shall a party be obligated to exhaust administrative remedies before filing a complaint." A party who files in chancery court must serve written notice on the Ethics Commission at the time of filing, but that notice is for information only and does not make the Commission a party to the case.

Penalty. Section 25-61-15 exposes the individual, not just the institution: a person who denies access to a non-exempt public record, or who charges an unreasonable fee, "may be liable civilly in his personal capacity in a sum not to exceed One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) per violation, plus all reasonable expenses incurred by such person bringing the proceeding."

Police records: incident reports yes, investigative reports at the agency's discretion

Mississippi draws a sharp line that is defined in the statute itself.

Incident reports are public. Section 25-61-12(2)(c) provides that "nothing in this chapter shall be construed to exempt from public disclosure a law enforcement incident report. An incident report shall be a public record." Section 25-61-3(e) defines an incident report as a narrative description of an alleged offense, where that description exists and does not contain investigative information, and requires it to include at minimum the name and identification of each person charged with and arrested for the offense, the time, date and location of the offense, and the property involved to the extent known.

Investigative reports are exempt, but discretionary. Section 25-61-12(2)(a) provides that when in the possession of a law enforcement agency, investigative reports "shall be exempt from the provisions of this chapter; however, a law enforcement agency, in its discretion, may choose to make public all or any part of any investigative report." Section 25-61-3(f) defines an investigative report as records containing information beyond the scope of an incident report, and enumerates eight categories including records compiled in detecting and investigating unlawful activity whose disclosure would harm the investigation, records that would reveal informants or witnesses, and records that would disclose investigative techniques.

Victim identity. Section 25-61-12(2)(d) provides that nothing in the chapter requires disclosure of information that would reveal the identity of the victim.

Body cameras. Research for this page found no dedicated statewide body-worn camera public-records provision in chapter 61. In practice, footage tied to an active matter is most likely to be treated as part of the investigative report and withheld at the agency's discretion, but that is an inference from the general structure rather than a rule the statute states, and this page will not present it as one. Ask the agency in writing which section it is applying. Because section 25-61-5(3) requires every denial to cite a specific exemption, the agency has to answer that question in writing anyway.

What the Public Records Act does not cover

Birth, death and marriage certificates run through the Mississippi State Department of Health under separate eligibility rules; section 25-61-11's cross-references point to Miss. Code Ann. section 41-57-2 for vital statistics access. See our Mississippi death records guide.

Emergency call audio raises questions about active investigations that differ from ordinary agency paperwork. We cover the general framework in Are 911 calls public records?.

Federal agency records run under 5 U.S.C. 552, not state law. See our guide to filing a federal FOIA request.

Information on this page reflects Mississippi law as of August 2026 and is general legal information, not legal advice. For advice on a specific denial, an Ethics Commission complaint or a chancery court filing, consult an attorney licensed in Mississippi.