The Problem
An in-house, remedy-based system that involved a lot of data entry and had significant file size storage limits did not allow the Washington State Patrol Public Records Office to communicate with requesters from within the system. This meant responses were sent via email or CD/DVD.
16,000
50
275
The Solution
With GovQA, the Washington State Patrol has seen significant time and cost savings. Because requesters “enter” their own requests on the public portal, the WSP no longer has heavy data entry to do on the 16,000 public records requests they get each year. And for those requesters who still send in written requests, the WSP still sees time savings because the GovQA system remembers previous customers. Plus, with no file size limits and responses sent from within the GovQA system, the WSP has been able to reduce the need for CDs and DVDs greatly.
“We also really like the updated redaction module,” explains Gretchen Dolan, Public Records Officer, Washington State Patrol. “It creates an exemption log automatically; so we no longer have to fill that out independently. The search functions are robust as well.”
”We have seen significant time saved by using GovQA. We receive over 16,000 records requests per year, so this system has had a tremendous impact in our ability to manage such a heavy workload without having to hire additional staff.
Gretchen DolanPublic Records Officer
