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Open-records requests jump 90% in 2025; planning and police top request counts

Oak Ridge City Council · January 20, 2026

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The city court clerk reported 221 open-records requests in 2025, a 90% increase over 2024; planning & development and the police department each received 78 requests. Staff plans Laserfiche digitization, department liaisons for requests and a policy review with the city attorney to manage workload.

The city court clerk presented a quarterly open-records update showing a marked rise in public-records activity.

Miss Hickman said the office received 221 requests in 2025, up from 116 in 2024 — a 90% year-over-year increase — and noted 15 requests already filed for 2026. Planning & Development and the…

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