Data Practices Requests

You have the right to access the county’s data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. You can look at the data for free or get copies for a charge.

State law requires the county to make it easy for you to access the data and it also treats government data as public data unless another state or federal law specifies it is not public data. "Government data" means all data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by any government entity regardless of its physical form, storage media or conditions of use.

How to Request Data

Request data using the Data Request Form.

Submit the request form via mail, email, or fax. Request forms can be submitted in person during regular business hours. Please remember that your request may not be processed immediately.

To make a request without the form, you need to put your request in writing and include the following information:

  1. State what you are asking for under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.
  2. Specify whether you want to look at the data, get copies, or both.
  3. Provide a clear and detailed description of the data requested.

Privacy

The Isanti County Sheriff's cannot require you to identify yourself or explain why you are asking for data. However, depending on how you want the Isanti County Sheriff's to process your request (e.g. you want to receive copies of the data by mail) county employees might need some information about you. If you choose not to identify yourself, the Isanti County Sheriff's Office will give you a point of contact so that you may check on the status of your request. If Isanti County Sheriff's Office employees do not understand your request and have no way to contact you, we cannot process your request.

How the Sheriff's Office Responds to Your Request

When the Isanti County Sheriff's Office receives your request, we work to process that request. If the county does not have the data or the data is not public, we will notify you as soon as possible and give you the reason why any data is not public. State law does not require the us to create or collect new data in response to a data request.

Public County-Owned Data Policies

  • If you want to look at the data, we will arrange a date, time and place for you to do so, at no cost.
  • If you want a copy of the data, we will provide copies as soon as possible. You can pick up your copies or have them sent to you. You must give the us an address or fax number.
  • If you want an electronic copy of the data, we will provide it if the data is in an electronic format, like email or CD-ROM.
  • We are not required to provide the data in a specific format or arrangement if it does not already keep the data in that format or arrangement. For example, if the data exists only on paper, we are not required to create electronic documents.
  • We are not required to answer questions that are not included in the data request.

Requests for Summary Data

Summary data are records that are specially prepared so they leave out private or confidential information about individuals. Preparing summary data is not done to provide access to private or confidential data. To request for summary data, you must make your request in writing using the Data Request Form. If there are charges associated with preparing summary data, state law allows the county to pass those charges on to you. It is always best to ask about summary data charges in your request.

Copy Charges

You can look at the data for free or get copies for a charge. State law allows the county to charge the public for copies of government data.

For 100 or fewer paper copies, the charge is 25 cents per copy. For most other types or amounts of copies, the charge varies. It depends on whether a charge is set by rule or law, or the cost of searching for, retrieving, copying, or transmitting the data.

The Sheriff's Office factors employee time, cost of materials and mailing costs in determining a charge. If the county hires an outside party to make copies of items it cannot reproduce, like photos, the county passes that charge on to you. These charges may be required up front.