Last year the City of Chicago received approximately 48,000 records requests. That works out to 185 requests every workday, or roughly 23 per hour, flooding into agencies across the city. This flow includes Chicago's Department of Technology and Innovation (DTI), where each request runs through FOIA officer Yasmine Miranda.

Keeping pace with that volume takes FOIA management software that can size, search, and redact a request at scale, and DTI's results show what that looks like in practice.

What learned from Chicago's FOIA officer?

Miranda has worked for the City of Chicago for 28 years. Her work has spanned agencies and mayors, and now she works as the FOIA officer for DTI. A few weeks ago we sat down with Miranda to learn about how she uses Logikcull for Public Records, and its FOIA request management capabilities, to streamline records request response and handle the high request volumes that slide across her desk. Here are the five lessons that stood out:

1. Logikcull turned an unsustainable manual process into a workflow Chicago could actually scale

When Miranda joined DTI, they were manually printing email records, redacting by hand, and scanning to send back to the requester. While tedious, this was possible up until DTI merged with another agency, expanding the universe of records they were responsive to. Volumes grew into the thousands, and page counts exploded. The manual process couldn't scale with the agency, so they turned to Logikcull.

"We wouldn't be able to turn around the responses in a timely manner. It would literally be a nightmare if I didn't have Logikcull and the bulk redaction tool."

2. The biggest operational benefit is immediate visibility into the size and burden of a request

Illinois FOIA lets agencies deny unduly burdensome requests, but only after offering the requester a chance to narrow them. So teams need a way to scope the burden of a given request. Miranda starts scoping by getting a page count. She pulls the responsive records into Logikcull, which automatically tallies the number of pages she'll have to review. From there she gets an early read that tells her whether DTI can fulfill a request as submitted or if she needs to work with the requester to narrow it.

Something as basic as pulling this page count used to take Miranda "a couple days." Now she can often get one in 10 to 15 minutes.

"Before, when we were printing to a PDF, it could take me a couple days just to come up with a page count. Now with Logikcull, it could be ten minutes, fifteen minutes."

3. Bulk search and redaction dramatically reduce both review time and the risk of mistakes

When releasing public records, officers need to go through and redact personally identifiable information. With Logikcull's Global Redactions, Miranda finds every Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL address across an entire collection, applies the appropriate FOIA exemption, and redacts them all in one pass instead of page by page. In her words, that both cuts turnaround time and "really removes the error margin."

"I type in gmail.com, and it'll tell me within a couple seconds there's 10 Gmails within this document. Right there, I am cutting down the turnaround time versus going page by page."

4. Logikcull has helped DTI become known for fast FOIA turnaround, despite growing demand

The City of Chicago divides its FOIA response by individual agency, and DTI is becoming known for its fast turnaround time.

"A lot of requesters are no longer really going to their respective department for emails. They are coming to DTI because of our turnaround time."

They are doing more than just keeping up with volume. DTI has become a trusted source of transparency, something their constituents clearly value.

5. The impact was significant enough that Miranda helped drive Logikcull from limited use to citywide adoption

Miranda learned about Logikcull from Chicago's law department. After seeing what it could do for her FOIA workflow, she knew DTI needed it. And she knew that FOIA officers across the city needed it too. As she put it, "Why shouldn't every FOIA officer have this tool?"

"Do not suffer through it. My motto is work smarter, not harder, and Logikcull is a tool that can definitely help you through that."

Practical Tips from Chicago's FOIA Officer

Here are some of the tactics Miranda follows to quickly turn around requests:

1. Size every request in the first few minutes. Upload the email export to Logikcull and get a page count in 10 to 15 minutes, so you know right away whether a request is burdensome.
2. Use document logs when narrowing requests. For large requests, send a document log that indexes key details like sender, recipient, subject, date, and attachments. Requesters can then select the records they want produced.
3. Teach repeat requesters your syntax. Response memos explain that requesters must include the document ID syntax when they reply, so a single bulk search also pulls attachments.
4. Bulk redact personal email addresses in seconds. Search "gmail.com," see every instance at once, and redact them all in one pass with the exemption cited.
5. Label every redaction with its exemption. Each black box shows the statute it falls under, and the response memo explains each one, so the response is easy to defend if challenged.
6. Justify denials from the start. Any FOIA request can turn into a lawsuit, so DTI's first response explains why a request is burdensome and offers a log or a 14-day window to narrow it.
7. Loop in other departments immediately. When a request belongs elsewhere, notify that department's FOIA officer, the law department liaison, and the mayor's office right away.

Logikcull is the AI-powered eDiscovery and public records response platform built for the high-frequency requests agencies face every day. Essential to 1,500+ organizations including the largest state and local government agencies, higher education institutions, and school districts, Logikcull lets customers kick off responses in seconds, find critical documents in minutes, and predict spend to the penny, all with drag-and-drop ease. That means you never miss another FOIA or PRA deadline.