Public Records
Whether you call them public records, open records, or FOIA requests, Common Sense gives your staff their time back while keeping your agency compliant.
Request a demoLos Altos Hills brought us 8,483 documents in one request. We saved them 99 hours and $7,900 of staff time, leaving only 30 documents requiring close human review.
See it run on your records →Staff Time Reclaimed
AI handles request clarification, document discovery, and redaction preparation so your team reviews finished work instead of months of manual process.
All Your Systems, Finally Connected
Stop asking every department to search their own files. AI searches your document management, email, and IT systems to find responsive records automatically.
Response Times That Impress
Routine requests such as for permits or inspection reports get fulfilled automatically while complex requests move through your workflow in days instead of months.
AI Intake and Scoping
AI chat engages residents during submission to clarify vague requests before they reach your staff, eliminating weeks of back-and-forth emails.
File Retrieval and Routing
AI searches across all your systems to find responsive records and routes requests to the right departments automatically, so IT stops spending days coordinating discovery.
Intelligent Classification
AI categorizes every document by subject matter and flags it as responsive, non-responsive, or exempt with legal citations, so staff know exactly what requires review.
AI-Powered Redactions
AI applies redaction rules based on state law to flag sensitive content, so staff approve finished redactions instead of manually marking up thousands of pages.
Jurisdiction Specific Enhancements
Collect payments, check identification, and triage non-public records requests to our other agents to solve the entire problem.
No rip-and-replace. Common Sense connects to what your agency already has deployed, then does the searching your staff used to do by hand.
Document management
Laserfiche, OnBase, and other local government vendors. AI searches them directly for responsive records.
Microsoft email and SharePoint
Outlook mailboxes plus SharePoint sites and drives. AI finds responsive messages, attachments, and files without staff digging through them.
Permitting, ERP, and 311 systems
Permitting and land management, ERPs, 311 and service-request platforms, and the other systems your agency runs every day.
Legacy systems, with or without APIs
From GIS platforms holding assessor, parcel, and zoning data to decades-old records systems, our intelligent workers navigate the interfaces to retrieve data, fully logged and secure.
Body-cam and incident reports, fire records, permits, personnel files, contracts, and "any and all" requests: every request type lives in one house instead of scattered across tools, spreadsheets, and inboxes.
Coordinating a request today
With Common Sense
Comparing records request software?
See how Common Sense stacks up against NextRequest, GovQA, and JustFOIA — side by side.
Staff always review and approve AI redactions before documents go out. AI prepares the work based on your state's laws, but you make the final call on every redaction. Nothing gets released without human approval.
Yes. You configure which types of requests get automatic fulfillment and which require staff review. Simple document lookups can go out instantly while sensitive requests go through your full approval workflow.
We connect with common platforms like Laserfiche, OnBase, Outlook, Gmail, and other local government specific vendors. For legacy systems without APIs, our intelligent workers navigate the interfaces to retrieve data, fully logged and secure.
Yes. We integrate with your current portal and systems. Many agencies consolidate to reduce costs since we handle everything their existing system does plus AI automation, but we're flexible based on what works for you.
Pricing is built for public agency budgets, and most agencies see ROI within weeks from staff time savings alone, often as much as $10,000 saved per request. The fastest way to see what it'd save you is to watch it run on your own records.