PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST

The City of Hattiesburg, in accordance with the Public Records Act of Mississippi and local ORD-Public Records_2017, seeks to be transparent and rapidly responsive to requests for public records. The public has the right make a request to inspect, copy, electronically reproduce or obtain a reproduction for public records for the City of Hattiesburg.

Timeliness in responding to your requests is important to us.

We will endeavor to respond to every request expeditiously and will deliver to the requester within seven (7) working days. In the rare occasion where records are difficult to retrieve and cannot be delivered the requester will be informed within seven working days of the reason for the delay, and those time consuming requests will be delivered within fourteen (14) working days.

Requests for public records from the Hattiesburg Police and Fire Departments, such as accident and incident reports, may be made directly to those departments. All other public records requests may be made to the Public Records Officer who resides in the City Clerk’s office in City Hall.

To make a request:

Requests can be made in person or by email.

For records involving Hattiesburg Police Department, requests can be made at the department’s location at #1 Government Plaza, on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
- For email requests, complete this form and send it to records1@hattiesburgms.com.
For records involving Hattiesburg Fire Department, requests can be made at the department’s administrative office located at 622 Corrine St., on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- For email requests, complete this form and send it to fdpublicrecords@hattiesburgms.com.
For all other records, requests can be made at City Hall, located at 200 Forrest St., on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- For email requests, complete this form and send it to publicrecords@hattiesburgms.com.

Request Exceptions/Exemptions:

State and Federal law, as well as other statutes and court decisions, provide that certain public records are exempt from public inspection and copying. Those exemptions include but are not limited to the following:

Appraisal records
Certain archaeological records
Attorney work product
Firearms licenses to carry
Defendants likely to flee or harm themselves or others
Environmental self-evaluation reports
Insurance risk based capital level requirement reports
Certain Judicial records
Licensure application and examination records
Individual personnel files
Third party trade secrets, proprietary commercial and financial information
Workers’ compensation records
Investigative reports from Police or Fire departments containing information beyond the scope of matters contained in an incident report
Records subject to privilege, such as attorney/client, physician/patient, etc.

Fees & Charges:

Copy fees: Photo copies of 25 pages or less will be free of charge. For copies exceeding 25 pages, the requester will be charged $0.15 per copy beginning from page one.

Labor fees: If the retrieval of the records takes City employees more than one hour to complete, the requester will be charged the cost at the hourly rate of the appropriate person to make the retrieval for the actual number of hours of labor involved. A deposit of half the estimate may be required for requests of $50 or more.

For general records, requests can be made at City Hall, located at 200 Forrest St., on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

For email requests, complete this form and send it to publicrecords@hattiesburgms.com.

For records involving Hattiesburg Police Department, requests can be made at the department’s location at 300 Klondyke St., on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
For email requests, complete this form and send it to records1@hattiesburgms.com.

For records involving Hattiesburg Fire Department, requests can be made at the department’s location at 300 Klondyke St., on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
For email requests, complete this form and send it to fdpublicrecords@hattiesburgms.com.