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For Richmond public records, let the record family determine the source. Preserve general City and Police FOIA as separate custodial searches, and use the Assessor’s direct property tools for assessment questions so every result has a clear, reproducible origin.
Richmond exposes three different ways a public record can surface
Richmond’s FOIA page separates a general City request from the Police Department route. That distinction should stay visible in the research file because a response from the central City process does not automatically mean police records were searched. Identify the department first and preserve the request destination with the production.
Property assessment is different again. The Assessor of Real Estate publishes a direct property-search environment and related data resources. When the question is about assessed property information, start there instead of opening a broad FOIA request whose result would be harder to reproduce.
Match the Richmond question to the route that owns it
General City record
Department correspondence, policy, contract or program file
Use the City FOIA process and identify the department or function in the request.
Police record
RPD incident, investigative or other Police Department material
Use the separate Police FOIA route and preserve incident identifiers when known.
Property assessment
Ownership/assessment or parcel information published by the Assessor
Use the direct property-search source and save the parcel/address criteria.
Make a Richmond request readable months after it was filed
1
Name the City function or departmentRoute the record according to who would have created, received or maintained it.2
Write down the scope even when writing is not mandatoryA saved record description, date range and identifier make the later response auditable.3
Use the police lane when the custodian is RPDDo not bury a Police Department request inside a generic City label.4
Prefer direct property data for assessment questionsThe Assessor source provides a reproducible property-data path without asking another department to recreate it.Read Richmond results by the source that produced them
| Source | Covers | Separate from |
|---|---|---|
| General City FOIA | Records searched by the receiving City department/process | Police-specific records unless routed there |
| Police FOIA | Richmond Police Department records within the submitted scope | Other City departments |
| Assessor property source | Published city real-estate assessment information | Unrelated administrative or police files |