Our response

We will complete your request in one of these ways:

• If we do not have the data, we will notify you in a reasonable amount of time.
• If we have the data, and it is public we will respond to your request within a reasonable amount of time.
• If we have the data, but it is not available to the public or contains elements not available to the public, we will remove or redact the protected portions and provide any remaining public data. We will cite the legal basis for withholding or redacting data when possible.
• If you are requesting private data on yourself, we may ask you to verify your identification to confirm you are authorized to receive the data.

Contacting you—your reply is needed

We may contact you about your request as we work on your response. We may need your reply to continue working on your request.

• We may contact you with questions about your request to clarify what you are seeking.
• If your request involves a large amount of data, we may send you one batch and confirm you’d like more before reviewing and sending the rest.
• If there is private information about you in the data, we may ask you to verify your ID to confirm you are authorized to receive the data.
• If we contact you to clarify a request, to confirm your continued interest in receiving data, or to verify your identity and we receive no response, we may close your request.

Updates on your request

We will provide updates by email. In addition, you can check the status of your request

First login, then click on My Requests to:

• Check on the status of your request
• Contact us about your request
• Download the data

How you'll get your data

You'll receive an email with a link back to our request system, where you can download the data.  Or you may use one of the following options:

• We can provide electronic copies by DVD or flash drive for a fee.
• You may choose to pick up copies of your data.
• If there is a charge for your data, we will contact you to arrange payment or prepayment. See details on data fees.
• If you are inspecting data but not receiving copies, we'll arrange a date, time, and place for you to review the data in person.

How we locate data

The agents that process your request don’t have access to or familiarity with all City data. Each department has a liaison, who works with the agents.  Agents work with the department liaisons to understand the request, locate, and gather responsive data.

• We try to understand your request and develop an efficient plan to locate the data you are seeking.
• We may work with the department liaison to better understand the request and may have to reach out to you to clarify elements of your request.
• The City maintains an immense amount of data; we will interpret your request to be reasonable. For example, we may ignore search suggestions for unhelpful keywords such as “Minneapolis.”
• We identify the departments that are likely to maintain responsive data and work with them. If you are aware of specific departments, teams, or people with data, you may suggest them in your request or via the request portal.
• We rely on other City staff to locate and provide data. If you believe data is missing, you can let us know through the request portal. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may appeal a City decision about data.

Some data may not be available

• We will respond with data that exists at the time the request is made. We are not required to create or collect new data if the City does not already have the data. We are not required to accept requests for data that may be collected or created in the future but does not exist at the time of the request.
• We are not required to provide data in a specific form if we do not keep the data in that form. For example, if the data you request is only available on paper, we are not required to create electronic documents.
• If the City determines it will create new data, transform data, or accept a request for data that does not exist at the time of the request, we will work with you on the details of your request, including charges and response time.
• We are not required to answer questions that are not requests for data. We may not respond to other types of correspondence.
• If responding to a request reveals protected data, the City may deny the request without confirming whether the requested data exists. This situation is most common when a request directly references a protected identity. You can avoid this by wording the request to not reference names that may be protected, such as juveniles, complainants, mandated reporters, victims, and witnesses.

See Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13. Government Data Practices