OPINION: In just three months, Albuquerque received 295 public records requests from an Arkansas Requester. Why?

The Inspection of Public Records Act is one of New Mexico’s most important transparency tools, designed to “protect the public’s right to know.” But like many laws written before the digital age, it is now being used in ways lawmakers never anticipated. The public deserves to understand the trends agencies are seeing. Something has changed.

Albuquerque received 19,000 public records requests in 2025. Most of this was directed to the Albuquerque Police Department, which saw an increase of nearly 70%. It’s not just the increase that’s new, it’s the type of requester. High-volume requesters have historically been a consistent group of law firms, consultants, banks and insurance companies. In the most recent quarter, however, a growing number of requesters are outside New Mexico and outside the United States.

While IPRA bars public bodies from asking the reason a requester is submitting a request, these new requests have a few similarities. First, all of them appear to be seeking police lapel video. Second, many appear to be generated by artificial intelligence. Third, many come from people or organizations that self-identify as online content creators or name an online video platform, e.g. YouTubers.

Here’s what appears to be happening: These content creators are requesting lapel camera video from police agencies across the U.S. and some of them are hiring people outside the U.S. to submit the requests. Many of their channels appear to be monetized. As a result, when people watch their videos on YouTube, the content creators receive revenue from the promotional ads. It appears to be a lucrative “side-hustle;” some of these individuals report that they are making tens of thousands of dollars a month.

There are two issues with these types of requests: First, the cost. IPRA prohibits agencies from charging requesters for redaction time, however, reviewing and redacting lapel video is massively time consuming. For example, my office spent the equivalent of 11 weeks in Q1 of FY26 working on requests for what appears to be a YouTuber in Arkansas. That’s $15,000 to $20,000 of your taxpayer dollars going out the door for just one Youtuber. Second, the out-of-state volume is impacting response times for local requesters. When you submit a request, you essentially get in a line. While many agencies try to segregate smaller requests from larger requests, we legally can’t prioritize New Mexico residents over residents from other states or jurisdictions. A New Mexico family waiting for records in relation to a crime and a YouTube channel in Nevada submitting hundreds of requests are processed under the same rules. As more capacity goes toward out-of-state YouTubers, New Mexicans wait longer.

The aspects of IPRA that advocates highlight as key attributes (low costs, no restrictions on purpose or location) are also what facilitate the current deluge. While many lobby for increased funding for records programs, the relationship between funding, volume and response time isn’t simple. The result is something more like a freeway, where adding more lanes just leads to more traffic.

The world of records requests is evolving, but the law has not kept up, and New Mexico’s taxpayers are footing the bill. A New Mexico family waiting on records about a crime shouldn’t have to wait behind an online content farm in another state or another country. It’s time to update IPRA, for staff, for taxpayers and for the New Mexicans the law was always meant to serve.

Ethan Watson is the city clerk of Albuquerque.