Move to update Alaska’s public records law stalls after public feedback, changes
- Alaska Beacon
- 28 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Proposal would increase the application of charges for access to public records and modernize the law’s language to include emails and video
By Haley Lehman
Alaska Beacon
A bill that would update the Alaska Public Records Act has stalled in the House of Representatives after multiple hearings and feedback from the public.
Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, proposed HB 377 to unburden municipalities and update the law’s language by requiring records requesters to pay the actual personnel costs of producing them. The proposal comes after municipalities voiced frustration at the current statute, which includes a “five-hour rule” that requires municipalities and the state to provide public records requests for free if the records take less than five hours in one month to produce.
Carrick said that social media content creators abuse the five-hour rule to obtain free police body cam footage for content. She said that the intent of the bill is not to penalize the average Alaskan but protect municipalities from creators looking to profit off of body camera footage for free.
The bill would also expand the definition of public record to include electronic mail and audio and visual recordings.
According to Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the department received 720 requests for audio and visual records in 2025.
DPS charges a flat fee of $36.49 for locating and copying audio and visual records requests.
Getting rid of the five-hour rule is one of Fairbanks Mayor Mindy O’Neall and the city council’s legislative priorities, according to a resolution passed in November 2025.
Fairbanks Police Ron Chief Dupee called processing records requests a “time consuming process” during a committee meeting in March. He said that redaction takes evidence custodians four minutes of work per one minute of video. According to Dupee, body worn camera footage is the most commonly requested record.
Alaska Municipal League Director Nils Andreassen spoke in favor of the bill. AML published a resolution in 2023 calling for legislation to update the Alaska Public Records Act to lessen the administrative burden on local governments.
“I don’t know of local governments who currently have the ability to do what they need to to capture the costs that go into fulfilling these requests,” he said.
Andreassen said that Alaska’s taxpayers are “subsidizing commercial activity across the nation” when content creators use visual recordings online. “We’re not able to do the job we’re supposed to do because we’re fulfilling requests from outside interests,” he said.
Some residents supported the effort to update the public records act but voiced concerns for raising the cost to access those records.
Legislators also attempted to increase transparency for victims and victim’s families.
A draft of the bill would require law enforcement agencies to provide an unedited copy of audio or video recordings to the victim or victim’s family involved in a use-of-force incident that results in death or serious physical injury.
Fiscal notes from the Department of Public Safety estimate that the requirement to provide audio and video recordings associated with certain use of force incidents within 30 days would cost the Alaska Bureau of Investigation and the State Crime Detection Laboratory approximately $1.6 million.
Gerald Rexford, the father of 24-year-old William Rexford, who was fatally shot by Alaska State Troopers while experiencing a mental health crisis in Fairbanks in January, supported the change and told legislators in a hearing on April 21 that his family is still trying to understand what happened to his son.
“This bill matters because families like mine should not be the last to know what happened inside their own home. Providing timely access to unedited footage to impacted families will help everyone,” Rexford said, adding that the bill would build trust between Alaskans and law enforcement.
Cynthia Gachupin, executive director of Empowerment Advocate Alaska, said that increasing costs to public records requests would create a “pay to play justice system” in which victims cannot afford the administrative fees to view evidence.
“We must modernize our records laws, but we must not do so on the backs of Alaskans who have already paid the highest price as victims of crimes or surviving family members,” Gachupin said.
Antonio Commack, a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People advocate in Wasilla, told legislators she thought it was “appalling” that they are trying to increase the cost to obtain public records.
“Making public records more expensive is going to make transparency less accessible,” she said.
John McKay, an Anchorage-based attorney, encouraged legislators to take more time to work on the bill.According to McKay, who practices media law, the bill would create barriers for journalists to access public information.
“The changes that would be implemented through this bill would be the most harmful to the public generally and to the news organizations and others serving the public interest,” he said.
During a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon, legislators suggested a policy that would make victims and family members of victims the highest priority to receive body-worn footage and a policy that would create different classes of records requestors, such as victims or family members of victims, Alaskans, members of the new media and commercial users.
Legislators questioned the nearly $1.6 million fiscal note during the hearing and set the bill aside for future discussion.
“We’re trying to thread a needle that’s really difficult to thread amidst a public records statute that’s really outdated,” Carrick said Tuesday.
Steve St. Clair, R-Wasilla, said that there were still unanswered questions before the bill could move forward.
• Haley Lehman graduated from James Madison University and reported for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
