What are public records?
When the government does something — builds a road, arrests someone, sells a piece of land — they write it down.
Those records belong to you. Not the government. You. The law says every person has the right to see them.
Click each card to see a real answer from public records:
Why does this matter?
Imagine your school wanted to build a new playground. How would you find out who owns the empty lot next door? How would you check if the construction company is licensed?
Public records.
This is real data from the Fresno County Assessor — the same records adults use to buy and sell property.
Try it yourself — find a business
There are 244,000 licensed contractors in California. Every single one is in a public database. Let's find one.
Every result here is a real licensed contractor. The state keeps these records so people can verify who they're hiring.
The California Constitution
This was voted on in 2004. 83.4% of Californians said YES. That means almost 9 out of 10 people agreed: the government works for us, and we have the right to see what they're doing.
Think about that: in a state of 40 million people, more than 10 million voted to protect your right to see public records.
What would you look up?
If you could search any government record, what would you want to know?
Maybe you want to look up a park your city built. Or find out how much a public building cost. Or check if a business near your school is licensed. There's probably a public record for it.
Every question submitted here goes into our request feed. Your idea might become a real feature on FOIA.TOOLS.