Records Requests
Request a Record
You can request a public record in many different ways:
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Online
Request a record online through our secure Public Records Request Center
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Phone
Call us at: 608-266-4075
Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm
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Fax
Fax us at: 608-267-1117
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Email
Email us at: pdrecords@cityofmadison.com
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Mail
Mail your request to:
211 S. Carroll St.
Madison, WI, 53703 -
In-Person
City-County Building
210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Follow signs to the ground floorHours: Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm
Process
We review all public records requests. We may redact some information from your request. Learn more about redactions.
For Public Records Requests: Standard reply period for simple public records requests is generally 4-5 months, police contacts and calls for service requests generally 1-2 weeks, and requests including video average 5-6 months.
When your records are ready, they will be made available to you through our secure portal. If a balance is due, an invoice will be issued to you through the portal for payment.
We respond to more than 25,000 public records requests a year. Our wait times for public records requests average around 5 months. Video records take longer.
Fees
There are fees for some requests, depending on the format of the records and how long it takes staff to collect them.
Restraining Orders
The Madison Police Department Case Number assigned to the incident is needed to request a restraining order hearing. An officer should have given you the case number at the time of contact with the officer. Public Records Requests placed for hearings are being processed faster; we are making our best effort to complete these requests for hearings. Please be sure to include the date of the hearing with your request (if known). Please note: The Dane County Court has advised us that you do not need the entire report in order to request a restraining order hearing, and the case number is sufficient.