Kentucky Public Records Laws: The Open Records Act (KRS 61.870) Explained

Kentucky's Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to 61.884, is one of a small number of state records laws that limits the right of inspection to residents. An agency has 5 business days to decide whether to comply, denials are appealed to the Attorney General, and the Attorney General's decision carries the force of law if nobody appeals it.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This page covers Kentucky state law only. For records held by a federal agency, see our guide on how to file a FOIA request. To compare Kentucky against other states, start at the public records laws by state hub.

The Kentucky Open Records Act

The Open Records Act, codified at KRS 61.870 through 61.884, governs access to records held by Kentucky state agencies, counties, cities, school districts, universities, and other public agencies. KRS 61.870 is the Act's definitions section, so it is a citation to the statutory range rather than to the right itself. The Act's operative command is in KRS 61.872(1): all public records shall be open for inspection by any resident of the Commonwealth, except as otherwise provided by the Act.

Kentucky does not call its law FOIA, and it is not the federal FOIA. If you want records from a federal agency, that request goes to the agency under 5 U.S.C. 552 and Kentucky's rules have nothing to do with it.

Two features make Kentucky unusual among its neighbors. The first is the residency limit discussed below. The second is the strength of the Attorney General appeal, which produces a decision that becomes enforceable law if the agency does not take it to court.

Kentucky Is a Resident-Only State

This is the single most important thing to know before you file. Most states open their records to any person. Kentucky does not, and it is not the only one of its neighbors that draws this line: Tennessee opens records for personal inspection by any citizen of this state under Tenn. Code Ann. 10-7-503(a)(2)(A), and Virginia opens them to citizens of the Commonwealth plus in-state newspapers and broadcasters under Va. Code 2.2-3704(A).

KRS 61.872(1) grants the right of inspection to a resident of the Commonwealth. A genuinely unconnected out-of-state person or company has no statutory right to inspect Kentucky public records. The limit itself dates to a 2021 amendment, and KRS 61.872 has not been changed since June 29, 2021. The most recent movement came in the definitions section rather than the access section: an amendment effective July 15, 2024 widened who counts as a resident by adding news-gathering organizations at KRS 61.870(10)(g).

What saves most requesters is that the statutory definition is far broader than everyday usage. Under KRS 61.870(10), a resident of the Commonwealth means any of the following:

1. An individual residing in the Commonwealth.
2. A domestic business entity with a location in the Commonwealth.
3. A foreign business entity registered with the Secretary of State.
4. An individual who is employed and works at a location or locations within the Commonwealth.
5. An individual or business entity that owns real property within the Commonwealth.
6. Any individual or business entity authorized to act on behalf of an individual or entity described in categories 1 through 5.
7. A news-gathering organization as defined in KRS 189.635(9)(b)1.a. to e.

Read those carefully before assuming you are shut out. Category 4 covers a commuter who lives in Cincinnati or Evansville and works in Kentucky. Category 5 covers an out-of-state owner of a Kentucky rental property or a piece of family land. Category 6 is the one people miss most often: a Kentucky attorney, or any authorized representative, can request on behalf of a qualifying person or entity. Category 7 covers news organizations regardless of where they are based.

The agency is entitled to make you show your work. KRS 61.872(2)(a) allows the official custodian to require a written application, signed with your name printed legibly, describing the records, and to require you to state in the application how you qualify as a resident under KRS 61.870(10)(a) to (f). Answer that question directly and specifically. A vague answer invites a denial you then have to appeal.

How to File a Kentucky Open Records Request

There is no statewide portal. Requests go to the official custodian of records at the individual public agency.

Under KRS 61.872(2)(b), a written application may be hand delivered, mailed, sent by fax, or sent by email to the agency's official custodian or designee at the email address the agency designates in its rules and regulations adopted under KRS 61.876. Agencies must publish those rules, so check the agency's website for the designated records email before sending to a general inbox.

KRS 61.872(2)(c) is a useful protection: an agency may not require you to use any particular form, but it must accept the standardized form developed under KRS 61.876(4). So you can use the state form or your own letter, and the agency has to take either.

A practical checklist:

1. Confirm which agency actually holds the records.
2. Write the request, sign it, and print your name legibly.
3. State which of the seven resident categories applies to you, and why.
4. Describe the records precisely. Precision matters more in Kentucky than in most states because it is also the trigger for the mailing right described below.
5. Send it to the designated custodian by one of the four permitted methods.
6. Keep the sent date. The 5-day clock runs from receipt.

Our free FOIA request generator produces a Kentucky-specific letter with the statutory citations and the residency statement built in. Nothing entered into it is saved or transmitted.

Getting Copies Mailed to You

KRS 61.872(3) gives a resident two ways to inspect: in person during regular office hours, or by receiving copies through the mail.

The mail route has a condition worth understanding. The agency must mail copies to a person whose residence or principal place of business is outside the county where the records are located, after that person precisely describes records that are readily available within the agency. If you qualify as a resident but live in a different county, precise description is what unlocks mail delivery. If you live in the same county, the agency can require you to come in and inspect. Under KRS 61.874(1) the custodian may require advance payment of the prescribed fee, including postage where appropriate, before the copies go out.

Kentucky Open Records Deadlines

Under KRS 61.880(1), each public agency must determine within 5 days, excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, after receiving a request whether it will comply, and must notify the requester in writing within that 5-day period. A denial has to state the specific exception relied on and explain how it applies to the record withheld.

Note what the 5-day rule does and does not promise. It is a deadline to decide and notify, not a guarantee that records arrive in 5 days. That distinction matters and is the same distinction readers miss in most states.

A separate provision handles records that are not sitting on a shelf. Under KRS 61.872(5), if a record is in active use, in storage, or otherwise unavailable, the custodian must immediately notify you and designate a place, time, and date for inspection, not to exceed 5 days from receipt of the application, unless it gives a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay along with the earliest date the record will be available.

These figures are current as of August 2026.

What Kentucky Records Requests Cost

KRS 61.874 caps the fee for noncommercial requests. An agency may prescribe a reasonable fee for copies of nonexempt records requested for noncommercial purposes, and that fee may not exceed the actual cost of reproduction, including the cost of the media and any mechanical processing cost the agency incurs, but not including the cost of staff required.

The exclusion of staff time is the important part. In many states the labor charge is the entire bill. In Kentucky, for a noncommercial request, the agency is charging you for paper, toner, discs, and machine time, not for the hours an employee spent pulling and copying the file. Under KRS 61.874(1), the custodian may require advance payment of the prescribed fee, including postage where appropriate, before producing or mailing copies.

Commercial requests are treated differently. A commercial-purpose request can carry a higher fee tied to the cost of producing, creating, or acquiring the records, and the agency may require a certified statement of the commercial purpose plus a contract before it fills the request.

Kentucky's statute does not create a federal-style public-interest fee waiver you can apply for as of right. Readers often assume one exists because the federal FOIA has one. The practical cost control here is the statutory cap itself, which is more protective than a discretionary waiver would be for most ordinary requests.

Exemptions and the Unreasonable-Burden Refusal

The exemptions live in KRS 61.878 and cover the familiar categories, including records containing information of a personal nature where disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, preliminary drafts and recommendations, records of law-enforcement agencies compiled in the process of detecting and investigating statutory violations where premature release would harm the agency, and records made confidential by other state or federal law.

KRS 61.872(6) also lets an agency refuse a request that places an unreasonable burden on it, or a pattern of repeated requests it believes is intended to disrupt its essential functions. That refusal is not self-executing. The same subsection requires the agency to sustain it by clear and convincing evidence, which is a demanding standard and a meaningful check on agencies that would prefer to call every large request burdensome.

Police Records and Body Camera Footage

Ordinary police reports are requested under the Open Records Act, subject to the law-enforcement exemption in KRS 61.878 for records compiled in an active investigation.

Body-worn camera footage runs through a dedicated statute, KRS 61.168, enacted in 2018 and amended in 2022. Its structure is worth understanding because it cuts both ways.

The general rule is that bodycam disclosure is governed by the Open Records Act. Layered on top of that, KRS 61.168 gives an agency discretion to withhold footage that falls into fourteen enumerated privacy and safety categories. Those include footage showing the interior of a private residence, the interior of a medical facility, sexual or nude content, minors, deceased persons, witnesses or informants, and the location of a domestic-violence shelter.

Then comes the carve-back that matters most to the people who usually want this footage. If a recording depicts an encounter with a public safety officer involving a use of force, or depicts an incident leading to the detention or arrest of an individual, or is the subject of a formal complaint against the officer or agency, disclosure of that recording is governed solely by KRS 61.870 to 61.884. The fourteen discretionary categories do not apply to it, and the ordinary Open Records Act exemptions control instead.

In plain terms: the exact recordings that generate the most public interest, force incidents and arrests, are the ones the agency has the least discretion to withhold on privacy grounds. That does not make them automatically public, because normal exemptions such as an active investigation can still apply, but it removes the fourteen-category escape hatch.

KRS 61.168 also gives a person directly involved in the incident, or that person's representative, the ability to view footage on agency premises. Viewing is not the same as receiving a copy. If you were in the encounter, ask for both, and say clearly that you were involved.

For 911 audio and dispatch records, which are separate from bodycam footage, see our page on whether 911 calls are public records.

Appealing a Denial to the Attorney General

Kentucky's appeal path is genuinely strong, and it is free.

If an agency denies your request or fails to respond, you may appeal to the Kentucky Attorney General under KRS 61.880. The Attorney General reviews the request and the denial and must issue a written decision, called an Open Records Decision, within 20 days, excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. That period can be extended by up to 30 additional work days in unusual circumstances.

The teeth are in what happens next. A party has 30 days from the day the Attorney General renders the decision to appeal it to circuit court. If no appeal is filed within that 30-day window, the Attorney General's decision has the force and effect of law and is enforceable in the circuit court of the county where the public agency has its principal place of business, or where the record is maintained.

That is a meaningfully stronger position than the advisory-opinion model most states use. In a state where the AG can only suggest, an agency can absorb an adverse opinion and do nothing. In Kentucky, an agency that ignores an adverse Open Records Decision and does not appeal it is on the wrong side of an enforceable legal obligation.

You are not required to go through the Attorney General. A requester may instead bring an original action in circuit court. Most people should use the Attorney General route first because it costs nothing and requires no lawyer.

Records the Open Records Act Does Not Reach

Birth, death, and marriage certificates are vital records held by the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics, with eligibility rules about who may obtain a certified copy. They are not Open Records Act records. Our Kentucky death records guide explains who qualifies and how to order.

Deeds and land records are county clerk records, covered in our Kentucky property records guide. Court case files and warrants are held by the Kentucky Court of Justice. The exclusion is not a definitional one, because KRS 61.870(1)(e) counts every state or local court and judicial agency as a public agency. It is practical: those records come from the circuit court clerk who holds the case file, and the Administrative Office of the Courts states that it does not maintain court case records and cannot provide access to them. See Kentucky warrant search.

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Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about the Kentucky Open Records Act as of August 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, fee rules, and agency procedures change. If a records dispute affects your legal rights, consult an attorney licensed in Kentucky about your specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04.