MUST EXIST™ PLAYBOOK
The method is free.
The templates are free.
You do not have to hire anybody to use them.
Take The FOIA Engineering Playbook, With Public Records Request Templates You Can File Today
- Three request templates, ready to adapt.
- The rule-first method, worked step by step.
- Every stall pattern named, with the written answer.
- A checklist to run before you hit send.
For residents, journalists, researchers, and counsel.
For the side without the cameras.
No cost, no upsell inside the file. Licensed CC BY 4.0, so you may copy it, teach from it, and build on it as long as you credit the source.
Built from three decades of public records practice,
then from what the agencies wrote back.
Police agencies buy plate camera networks on contract, and every step of that buying leaves paper behind. Then they write a policy to govern the cameras. That policy promises a supervisor will review the logs, that only cleared staff get access, and that every search carries a stated reason. Meanwhile the searches log themselves, by the thousand.
The audits that policy promises often go unrun. The sharing setup goes unreviewed. Almost nobody asks to see either one.
Must Exist turns that gap into records. We ask for the use policy, the query audit trail, the sharing roster, the contract and every amendment to it, and the agency's own retention citations. Then we hand them to whoever has to act: the residents facing a renewal vote, the commissioners who have to cast one, the reporters working the story, and the defense counsel who need the production put in order.
Every request is anchored to a written rule the agency adopted, never to a record someone wishes existed. Every statute we cite is checked against the original text, or left in brackets on the page until somebody looks it up. Every draft gets an adversarial review before anyone files it. The method comes out of filed Chapter 119 requests and what came back. That includes one production that turned up a suppression feature two earlier no-records replies had said did not exist.
The rule earns the request. The request never outruns the rule.
MUST EXIST™ RULE-ANCHORED
LICENSE PLATE READER RECORDS REQUESTS
AND PRODUCTION AUDITS
Most public records requests fail for the same reason. They ask for a topic instead of a record.
You write to the police department asking for everything about the camera contract, and you get back a fee estimate for eleven thousand dollars, or a letter saying the request is too broad to process. Nobody lied to you. The request just asked for a subject, and agencies do not keep files by subject. They keep files by whatever their own written rules told them to create.
The Must Exist method starts at the other end. Find the rule the agency wrote for itself, work out what paper that rule generates when somebody follows it, and ask for that paper by name. A request built that way is narrow enough to be cheap and specific enough that a custodian cannot wave it off.
The FOIA Engineering Playbook is that method written down, with the templates attached. It is free, and it always will be.
What is in the FOIA Engineering Playbook?
- Three request templates. The use policy, the query audit log, and the sharing roster. These are the three documents that tell you whether a camera program is doing what its own policy promised, and they are the backbone of every campaign we run.
- The rule-first method, worked step by step. How to find the written rule, how to figure out what record it produces, and how to name that record so a custodian recognizes it.
- How to pull a retention schedule before you draft. This is the step almost nobody takes, and it is the one that turns "we have no such record" into a conversation.
- How to find the actual custodian. Filing with the wrong office is the most common way a good request quietly dies.
- Every stall pattern, named, with the written answer to it. The vague fee estimate. The request to narrow something already narrow. The exemption claimed as a category instead of a citation. Silence. Each one gets a paragraph you can send the same day.
- A pre-send checklist. Nine things to confirm before a request leaves your outbox.
Who is this for?
Residents who found cameras or a contract in their own town and want the paperwork behind the vote. Journalists working a surveillance story on a deadline. Researchers and professors assembling records across many agencies, who need the requests written consistently enough that the answers compare. Defense counsel who want the policy, the audit trail, and the roster as an organized file. Elected officials and staff who would rather read their own agency's records before they cast a vote.
No experience needed. Everything in the playbook is paperwork any member of the public may file.
Why is it free?
Because the documents are public and the method is not a secret. Withholding it would not make me money, it would just mean fewer requests get filed, and fewer filed requests is the outcome the agencies would prefer.
The playbook carries a Creative Commons Attribution license. You may copy it, hand it to your newsroom, teach a workshop from it, translate it, or build something better on top of it. All the license asks is that you say where it came from.
If you want to run the method yourself, take the file and go. Nothing on this page is a gate in front of that.
What the playbook will not do
It is not legal advice, and I am not a lawyer. It teaches records practice, which is paperwork, not law. Records statutes vary a great deal between states, and where a question turns on your own facts or your own jurisdiction, the answer is a lawyer licensed where you live.
It will not guarantee that your agency produces anything. Some agencies run a real process and can show their work. When that happens, the honest result is a page saying so, and that is worth publishing too.
And no template in it asks for anyone's plate number, vehicle photograph, owner record, or investigative target. We say so inside the request itself, in writing, before the agency gets a chance to raise it.
Why do you ask for my email?
Two reasons, and neither one is a mailing list you cannot escape.
The first is that the playbook gets revised. Statutes change, agencies invent new stalls, and a template that worked last spring sometimes needs a new paragraph. When a version ships, the people who took the old one should hear about it.
The second is that the question about which agency you are looking at is genuinely useful to me. When forty people ask about the same department in the same month, that is a story, and sometimes it is a story I go work on.
Your address is not sold, rented, or handed to a partner. You can leave at any time from the link at the bottom of anything we send.
How do I get it?
Fill in the form below. The download link appears the moment you submit, and a copy lands in your inbox a minute later in case you close the tab.
Then go read the rule your agency wrote for itself, and ask them for the paper it should have produced.
Where to go from here
- The Must Exist method in full →
- Must Exist Autopsy — a live class where we take one failed request apart on screen →
- Must Exist Campaign — when you want the requests filed with you rather than by you →
- The case files on Substack →
Stop tweeting at the surveillance state. Start filing against it.
I am not a lawyer, and nothing on this page is legal advice. What you will find here is process guidance and template language. Records law varies a great deal from one state to the next and from one set of facts to the next. If your situation turns on your own circumstances, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state.
FAQs
Is the FOIA Engineering Playbook really free?
Yes. There is no cost, no trial, and no upsell inside the file. It carries a Creative Commons Attribution license, so you may copy it, teach from it, translate it, or build on it, as long as you credit where it came from.
What is in the playbook?
Three public records request templates covering the use policy, the query audit log, and the sharing roster. The rule-first drafting method worked step by step. How to pull a retention schedule before you draft and how to identify the real custodian. Every common agency stall named, with the written answer to each. And a pre-send checklist.
Do I need to know records law to use it?
No. The playbook teaches records practice, which is paperwork rather than law. Everything in it is a filing any member of the public may make. Where a question turns on your own state or your own facts, that is the point to involve a lawyer licensed where you live.
Does this only work for Flock and license plate reader records?
No. Plate cameras are the worked example because the paper trail is unusually clear, but the method applies to any decision an agency made under a written rule. Find the rule, work out what record it produces, ask for that record.
Does it work outside Florida?
The method does. Every state has a public records or freedom of information statute, and every one of them works better when you ask for a named record instead of a topic. The specific citations in the templates are Florida Chapter 119, and you swap in your own state's statute. The playbook shows you where.
Why do you ask for my email address?
So we can send you the file, and so we can tell you when a revised version ships. Statutes change and agencies invent new stalls. Your address is not sold, rented, or shared, and you can unsubscribe from the link in any message we send.
How fast do I get the download?
Immediately. The link appears on screen as soon as you submit, and a copy arrives by email about a minute later in case you close the tab.
Can I share the playbook with my newsroom or my class?
Yes, and please do. The Creative Commons license exists precisely so you can hand it around, teach a workshop from it, or post it. Credit the source and you are within the license.
What if my agency says no records exist?
That is a real answer and sometimes the important one. A policy promising quarterly supervisor review, paired with a certification that no review records exist, tells you the review never happened. The playbook covers how to get that certification in writing rather than as a shrug.
What if I want the requests filed for me?
That is the Must Exist Campaign, where the requests are drafted, filed, tracked, and argued on your behalf against an agency you name. The playbook is the free version you run yourself. Most people should start with the playbook.