Contact Us
911: Call if you can, text if you can't
Non-Emergency /
file a Police Report:
804-646-5100
Business Phone:
804-646-5911
To file a FOIA request: [email protected]
Emergency Communications - Facebook
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Requesting records
The Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response (DECPR) provides existing 911 records in accordance with the City of Richmond policy under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to Virginia residents ONLY. Records are also provided to other governmental agencies. Requests are processed in the order that they are received.
Records availability
The following records are maintained by the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response (DECPR.) These are the only records provided by DECPR:
- Printed summary and chronology of calls for service from Sept. 11, 2007, to present.
- Audio recordings of 911 calls and radio traffic for the past 180 days.
The following information is NOT released by DECPR:
- Information that falls under Virginia FOIA general exemptions
- Information that falls under Virginia FOIA exemptions for 911 records
- Information that could jeopardize ongoing police, fire or DECPR investigations
- Records for which DECPR is not the custodian of records. This includes Richmond Police Department police or crash reports, Police bodycam footage, 911 calls to other agencies, Richmond Police Department records, Richmond Fire Department records, Richmond Ambulance Authority records, records for other City of Richmond departments. To request these records, you would need to contact those organizations directly. Contact information for other City of Richmond FOIA officers is listed here.
- FOIA requests involving criminal matters or matters under investigation. Direct these requests to the Richmond Police Department's Office of General Counsel. That office may be reached at 804-646-5147 or by email.
- Records for Henrico County. Public safety records and information for Henrico County are here.
- Records for Chesterfield County. FOIA information for Chesterfield County is here.
- Pursuant to Virginia Code § 2.2-3706 (B), identifying information of a personal, medical or financial nature will be redacted from records.
Records are NOT released to:
- Requesters with mailing addresses outside of Virginia.
- Requesters who owe a balance for previous records requests unpaid for 30 days or more.
How to request DECPR records
In order to locate the record that you are seeking, DECPR needs as much of the following information as possible:
- Name, mailing address of requester
- Statement that the requester will pay the associated costs
- Exact dates and times of the incident(s)
- Address of the incident(s) within the City of Richmond ONLY
- Type of incident(s) and report number(s)
- Telephone number that the 911 call was placed from (if known)
- Whether you wish to receive an estimate of costs before the request is completed.
PLEASE NOTE: We can locate records ONLY with the information above. We cannot search by names of individuals involved, officers' names or any other information.
Printed reports and recordings on a CD will be mailed to you, along with your invoice, through the U.S. Postal Service. Printed reports only will be emailed to you, if you provide an email address.
To file a request, please email the above information to [email protected]. You will receive an automated emailed message as verification that your request was received.
Requests are processed in the order that they are received in the email.
Costs
Requesters are charged for the time and materials needed to fulfill the request via an invoice. Charges do not apply to Virginia governmental agencies.
You will be charged for:
- Staff time: The hourly rate charged will be based on the hourly rate of pay of the staff person who could handle the request. Time will be counted for searching, accessing, duplicating and supplying records. It also includes time spent determining whether the information can be released and searching for information that must be redacted.
- Printed records: 15 cents per printed page
- CD audio recording: $1 per CD
- Postage: $5.70 (if requests are mailed).
If the cost is estimated to be more than $200, you may be required to pay a deposit before records are provided. Please state in the email request whether you wish to receive an estimate of the costs before the request is completed.
Payment
You will receive an invoice with your mailed or emailed records. Payment is due 30 days from the date of the invoice. Payment of any balances due will be required before processing any future FOIA requests. Checks should be made payable to "City of Richmond-DECPR," include the invoice number, and be mailed to the address for the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response listed on the invoice. The only accepted methods of payment are to mail in a check or to bring a check to our office.
If your request is denied for overdue payment of a previous request, that is the completion of the action on that request. If you still need the records after you have submitted payment, you will need to submit a new request, which will be processed in the order it was received.
Questions and more information
If you have questions, please see the FAQs answered below.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
If you are a resident of Virginia and you do not have an outstanding invoice for previous requests, you may receive the following from the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response (DECPR):
- Printed records of information received by through telephone calls and text messages to Richmond 911 and the Richmond non-emergency public safety phone number, 804-646-5100, from Sept. 11, 2007, to present for events that do not include criminal activity and are no longer under investigation. Requests for records that involve criminal activity should be emailed to [email protected].
- Audio recordings of these calls within the past 180 days.
These records will be redacted to remove any personal, medical or financial information, as per Virginia Code § 2.2-3706 (B). Audio recordings will automatically end when calls are transferred to other organizations.
DECPR records are those maintained in the Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system related to initial call-taking for calls to 911 and the nonemergency number, 804-646-5100. CAD records also include information on the dispatch of first responders of the Richmond Police Department and the Richmond Fire Department. Any records related to the response of these or other organizations should be requested from the responding organization:
If you are a resident of Virginia and you do not have an outstanding invoice for previous requests, you may receive records from the Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response (DECPR) by sending an email to [email protected]. If you seek records from the Richmond Police Department, send an email to [email protected]. If you seek records from other City of Richmond agencies, send an email to [email protected].
The email for DECPR records must include the following information. If it does not include this information, it cannot be processed:
- Name, mailing address of requester
- Statement that the requester will pay the associated costs
- Exact dates and times of the incident(s)
- Address of the incident(s) within the City of Richmond
- Type of incident(s) and report number(s)
- Telephone number that the 911 call or nonemergency call was placed from (if known)
- Whether you wish to receive an estimate of costs before the request is completed.
DECPR receives an average of more than one thousand calls per day. In order to find the records that you seek, we must have at least the time, date and location of the incident OR the time, date and telephone number that the call was placed from if it was within the past 180 days. We cannot search by names of individuals involved, names of first responders or other information, because that information is not usually known or provided at the time of the call.
After you send a FOIA request to [email protected], you will receive an automated email. This is your notification that your request was received.
Once your request has been processed in the order it was received, you will receive an emailed response, a postal mail response or sometimes both. The response will be one of the following:
- Printed records, recordings(s) on a CD, invoice in the postal mail
- Printed records and invoice in email, if no recordings exist
- Printed search results and invoice in email
- Notification that no records were found or we need more information in order to find the records in emailed response
- Emailed notification that the request involved a criminal activity or is still under investigation and that you should contact the Richmond Police Department's Office of General Counsel to request records at 804-646-5147 or by email.
- Emailed notification that the request was denied because of an overdue payment for a previous request.
- Emailed notification that you must pay a deposit before receiving records, because they are estimated to cost $200 or more.
Audio recordings are available of calls to Richmond 911 (Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response (DECPR) and the nonemergency number, 804-646-5100, within 180 days of the call. Recordings are not available for time periods more than 180 days past, unless they were previously requested and saved. No call recordings are available for events that were reported by officers or for calls made to other agencies, such as the Richmond Ambulance Authority or Virginia Commonwealth University. You must inquire with those agencies for call recordings.
Also, calls that require emergency medical assistance are transferred to the Richmond Ambulance Authority for dispatch. Richmond 911 audio recordings automatically end when the call is answered by the Richmond Ambulance Authority. DECPR does not release call recordings for the Richmond Ambulance Authority. To request those recordings, please contact the Richmond Ambulance Authority.
Recordings that are available for release will be provided to the requester on a CD and sent through the postal mail. Recordings cannot be emailed.
Some 911 and nonemergency public safety calls are transferred to other agencies after being answered by the Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response (DECPR). DECPR is the custodian only of the portion of the call involving the DECPR call-taker, and cannot release records for those other agencies. Requests must be made to those agencies for that portion of the call.
Calls for emergency medical services are transferred to the Richmond Ambulance Authority. You must request the portion of the call involving the paramedics from the RAA website.
Other agencies where calls might be transferred are:
- Contact information for other City of Richmond FOIA officers is listed here.
- Public safety records and information for Henrico County are here.
- FOIA information for Chesterfield County is here.
- Virginia State Police is here.
- Virginia Capitol Police is here.
It is not possible to know in advance exactly how much the records you seek will cost, because each one is different, depending on the complexity of the request and the records that are available.
You may request an estimate of costs before the request is completed in the email you send to [email protected]
You will be charged via an invoice that will be sent along with the records. Charges are for the following:
- Staff time: The hourly rate charged will be based on the hourly rate of pay of the lowest level staff person who could handle the request, which is $25 per hour. Time will be counted for searching, accessing, duplicating and supplying records. It also includes time spent determining whether the information can be released and searching for information that must be redacted.
- Printed records: 15 cents per printed page
- CD audio recording: $1 per CD
- Postage: $1 (if requests are mailed).
If the cost is estimated to be more than $200, you may be required to pay a deposit before records are provided.
Fees are waived for other governmental agencies ONLY.
Records requests are processed as quickly as possible in the order they are received at [email protected]. Processing time depends on the number of requests waiting to be processed at any given time. You can help ensure timely processing by making sure that your request meets all of the requirements and includes all of the necessary information specified above.
During times of limited resources and staffing, the Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response elects the right to use seven additional work days to respond to FOIA requests.
You will receive a printed invoice along with the records, whether they are emailed or sent through the postal mail. You must pay the invoice within 30 days via a mailed check.
Please make sure that a copy of the invoice is mailed along with your check for payment. If that is not possible, please reference the invoice number, which appears at the top right of the invoice and is 10 digits beginning with the year of the request and a dash.
Please ensure that the check is made out properly to City of Richmond-DEC and mailed to 3516 N. Hopkins Road, Richmond, VA 23224.
There is no option for paying online or any other method of payment other than mailing a check at this time.
If you or your company has an invoice for previous requests that has not been paid within 30 days, your request may be denied.
If this happens, you will receive notification via email that the request has been denied, along with a listing of the overdue requests and copies of the overdue invoices. This is the only notification that you will receive and the only action that will be taken on this request.
If you still need the records, you must do the following:
- Mail a check along with the overdue invoice as soon as possible.
- Verify that we have received the check in our office by calling the DECPR office number, 804-646-5911.
- Submit a new request for the records via email to [email protected]. Remember that each request must include all of the needed information.
DECPR does not release police reports, police records, bodycam footage, records for criminal activity or events still under investigation or records for any other organization.
To request a police report from the Richmond Police Department, please follow these instruction, from the website here:
In Person
Visit Window 4 of the Richmond Police Information Desk
RPD Headquarters lobby
200 W. Grace St.
Richmond, VA 23220.
If you cannot come to RPD Headquarters
Please fill out this form and mail it – along with a $5 draft or M.O. and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to
RPD Records Unit
200 W. Grace St.
Richmond, VA 23220
- The fee is $5.00
- Personal checks are not accepted.
- Draft or money order must be made payable to the City of Richmond.
- If the information requested is not located, your payment and an explanation will be returned to you.
- Please include the Incident Number, if known.
- RPD telephone number is (804) 646-6715.
To request other Richmond Police Department records, please call 804-646-5147 or email [email protected].
DECPR does not release police reports, police records, bodycam footage, records for criminal activity or events still under investigation or records for any other organization.
To request Richmond Police Department records, please email [email protected] or call 804-646-5147.
DECPR does not release police reports, police records, bodycam footage, records for criminal activity or events still under investigation or records for any other organization.
Other organizations have their own policies and procedures for requesting records.
- Contact information for other City of Richmond FOIA officers is listed here.
- Public safety records and information for Henrico County are here.
- FOIA information for Chesterfield County is here.
