What Is FOIA Software and How to Improve Response Time and Transparency

Every day, public agencies are flooded with requests for public information—from journalists, lawyers, advocacy groups, and private citizens alike. While the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was designed to foster transparency and accountability in government, the practical reality of processing these requests is far from simple.

For federal, state, and local agencies, meeting FOIA deadlines while ensuring legal compliance and data privacy has become a high-stakes challenge. That’s where FOIA software comes in.

Modern FOIA solutions help streamline the entire public records request process—from intake to delivery—using automation, AI, and secure digital workflows. In this blog, we’ll explore what FOIA software is, how it works, and why it’s critical for agencies aiming to improve response time, compliance, and public trust.

What is FOIA software?

FOIA software is designed to help records management professionals streamline and, in some cases, automate the processing of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Unlike generic content management systems or email chains, FOIA software and public records request software are built to overcome the specific challenges of transparency laws.

These platforms typically include:

Request intake and tracking tools.
Workflow automation for document collection, review, and redaction.
Deadline management and alerts to ensure compliance.
Audit trails to support internal reviews and legal discovery.
Integrated redaction capabilities for sensitive data like personal identifiable information (PII) or law enforcement information.

The goal? Help agencies process more requests, faster, without sacrificing accuracy or compliance. Yet, not all FOIA software solutions are created equal in addressing the sheer volume of requests agencies face today.

How FOIA software improves response time

From 2016 to 2022, the average number of FOIA requests per year was 826,847. Then, in 2023, we saw a dramatic 45% increase in requests, with nearly 1.2 million requests. That growth has continued, with another 25% increase in FOIA requests, reaching 1.5 million last year.

Due to the sheer number of requests agencies must process, especially to remain compliant with laws that dictate the release of these files, FOIA software or public records requests software with automated capabilities, particularly those utilizing AI, is critical. Manual FOIA processing can involve multiple departments, disconnected systems, and inconsistent formats. It’s time-consuming, inefficient, and, too often, error-prone. This leads to a drain on the budget as overtime is usually required to complete these requests. Furthermore, it burns out the staff.

With FOIA software, agencies typically gain centralized request management, automated routing, searchable databases, and built-in deadline tracking. However, today’s modern FOIA automation tools incorporate some component of artificial intelligence. With AI-assisted review and automated redaction, records management professionals can significantly reduce the time spent reviewing documents by days or even weeks.

For example, the Oregon Police Department struggled to redact video footage at scale for release, often within a 45-day deadline. By taking a 10-minute video, they were able to redact the footage in an hour and twenty-five minutes using a single type of software. When using Veritone Redact, they were able to reduce redaction time by 66%, redacting the video in just twenty-five minutes.

The role of redaction in FOIA fulfillment

As we’ve seen in the above example, one of the most sensitive and time-consuming parts of FOIA processing is redaction. Public records professionals must ensure that they remove or obscure personally identifiable information (PII) from any footage slated for release. Without any sort of automation powered by AI, this process quickly becomes time-consuming, adding to their FOIA backlog as teams struggle to keep up with requests.

Before AI, the best FOIA software and public records request software for redacting PII was still a challenging process. One records management professional at the Escondido Police Department shared her experience with using such a solution, which often required her to go back and make adjustments to the redactions the software was supposed to automate. And if it were complex footage with multiple people in the shot, she would have to make further manual adjustments. On average, she would spend 7 hours of her day just working on videos. But that all changed with AI.

Manual redaction, such as this, introduces a significant amount of risk. Human reviewers may not only miss things, but they’ll inevitably find themselves in a vicious cycle of a growing backlog, no matter how overtime or work they do. With agencies strapped for resources and staff as it is, FOIA compliance in this day and age requires new solutions.

For instance, tools like Veritone Redact use AI to:

Identify and flag sensitive information at scale.
Automate redaction across audio, video, and text.
Ensure consistency and accuracy in every release.

This is especially critical for law enforcement and justice agencies responding to time-sensitive requests involving body-worn camera footage, dispatch audio, or case documents.

Meet Veritone Redact, Redact Managed Service, and iDEMS

As part of your suite of FOIA request software or FOIA compliance software, or a fully outsourced service, Veritone’s public sector suite is designed to support agencies of every size.

Veritone Redact: powerful, AI-driven redaction for audio, video, and documents.
Redact Managed Service: let our experts handle your redaction workload, fast and securely, whether you just need help for a special project or ongoing support to scale up your capability rapidly.
iDEMS: a scalable, cloud-based evidence and records management platform that integrates with all of Veritone’s AI capabilities for the Public Sector, including person-of-interest tracking across video files, eDiscovery, transcription and translation, and more.

Our solutions are trusted by some of the largest federal departments and law enforcement agencies across the nation, enabling them to elevate their capabilities with their FOIA software or public records request software.

Final thoughts

FOIA isn’t just a compliance obligation—it’s a cornerstone of transparency with the public that has been crucial in recent years. However, as request volumes rise and data types diversify, government agencies of all sizes require modern tools to keep pace with these changes. AI in FOIA software empowers your team to respond more quickly, intelligently, and with greater confidence, while reinforcing public trust in the process.

Explore more in the upcoming series (coming soon):