Basic Public Records Re-Certification

This re-certification course is designed for records access officers who already hold their certification and wish to maintain it. Rather than a simple refresher, the program functions as a working session focused on the practical execution of public records law—the aspect that supervisors scrutinize most carefully. Participants work through a structured week of four modules, a live instructor session, and a challenge assessment, centered on a specific records request and the substantive changes in the law for the current cycle.

WHAT THE 2026 EDITION ADDS

New this cycle: Body-Worn Cameras, POST-Era Discipline, and the Surveillance Records Nobody Planned For

The 2025 edition addressed body-worn camera footage primarily in the context of domestic-violence calls. That focus has shifted. The contemporary challenge involves footage stored on a vendor's cloud platform—classified as a public record because control, not location, determines status—containing multiple subjects (victim, juvenile, bystander, officer) simultaneously. Handling such material requires segregability analysis, redaction planning, and fee calculations capable of withstanding appeal. Additionally, the course covers POST-era certification and discipline records when cross-referenced against a department's internal-affairs files, and retention problems created by automated license-plate readers, drones, and acoustic gunshot detection systems.

WHAT CHANGED SINCE YOUR LAST CYCLE

• The misconduct carve-out has an edge. It reaches sworn law-enforcement officers, using the c.6E definition, and for those records sustained-versus-exonerated is not probative. It does not reach non-sworn or civilian personnel – those still run the (c) balance.
• The witness shield doesn't cover the officer. Exemption (f) reaches a private witness by voice and identifying context. A public official acting officially is not a shielded witness.
• Section 97D is narrower than people think. Operating through (a), it reaches the report and the victim-officer communications. Not the whole file.
• Fees are timed from this request. Sample the actual footage in front of you; an average borrowed from past jobs is the estimate that gets cut.
• Over-redaction is its own failure. Blur generously and you lose too. Expect in camera review against the unredacted original.
• The technology outran the schedule. Plate readers, drones, and gunshot detective generate records on vendor platforms, purging on a cycle you did not choose.

WHAT CARRIES FORWARD, UPDATED

• Control, not location. Vendor, contractor, counsel, and personal-device records count.