PAGOSA TRANSPARENCY PROJECT
Public records templates for Colorado
Updated 30 July 2026

WHAT THIS IS
Fill-in-the-blank templates for filing your own public records
request in Colorado. Free to use. No attribution needed. Written
for Archuleta County but they work statewide, swap the agency
names.

Not legal advice. I am not an attorney. These are letters, not
filings, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship.


WHICH TEMPLATE DO I USE
Two different Colorado statutes cover public records, and picking
the wrong one is the most common way a request gets stalled.

  CORA   Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. 24-72-201 et seq.
         Use for: county commissioners, county administration,
         finance, town clerks, school districts, special
         districts, any non-police agency.
         File: 01-cora-request.txt

  CCJRA  Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act,
         C.R.S. 24-72-301 et seq.
         Use for: sheriff's offices, police departments,
         district attorneys.
         File: 02-ccjra-request.txt

If you are not sure, or the agency is a sheriff's office holding
what are really business records like a vendor contract, file
under both in the alternative. Template 02 already does this.
Agencies will sometimes route a record into CCJRA precisely
because CCJRA gives them more discretion.


THE DEADLINES THAT MATTER

CORA
  Three working days to respond.
  Up to seven additional working days only if the custodian
  claims extenuating circumstances, and they have to tell you
  in writing that they are taking the extension.
  C.R.S. 24-72-203(3)(b)

  Note: the legislature tried to stretch this to five days in
  2025 and again in 2026. The 2025 bill was vetoed and the 2026
  bill died in committee. Three working days is still the law.

CCJRA
  No statutory deadline. This is the single biggest difference.
  A sheriff's office can sit on a CCJRA request. What they
  cannot do is refuse and stay silent about why.

  If they deny you, ask in writing for a statement of grounds.
  They then have seventy-two hours to give you one, and it has
  to cite the specific law or describe the public interest
  being protected. C.R.S. 24-72-305(6)

  That written statement is what you need if you ever go to
  district court under 24-72-305(7).


FEES
  First hour of research and retrieval is free.
  After that the cap is 41.37 dollars per hour. That figure is
  set in statute and adjusted for inflation every five years.
  C.R.S. 24-72-205(6)

  Always ask for a written cost estimate before they start
  work, and say you want to approve any charge first. Fee
  shock is the most common way a request quietly dies.

  Ask for records in the digital format they are already
  stored in. If a record lives in a searchable or sortable
  format, you can ask for it that way, which sidesteps
  per-page copy charges. C.R.S. 24-72-203(3.5)


HOW TO ACTUALLY FILE
  1. Pick the template.
  2. Fill in every bracket.
  3. Attach or paste your list of records. Template 03 is the
     Flock camera list if that is what you are after.
  4. Email it. Keep the sent copy.
  5. Calendar the deadline the day you send it.
  6. If they blow the deadline, send template 04.
  7. If they deny, send template 05 the same day.

Send it from an address you actually check. Everything after
the first email is about persistence, not cleverness.


A FEW THINGS THAT WORK
  Ask for a specific document, not a topic. "The contract" beats
  "information about the contract."
  Give a date range. It cuts their search time and their fee.
  Never explain why you want it. You do not have to, and it
  gives them nothing to argue with.
  Stay boring and polite in writing. Every email you send is
  itself a public record and may end up in front of a judge.