PRA 2025 – A Year in Flux

2025 was a very eventful year for Washington public records practitioners, and it looks like 2026 is going to be just as interesting. There has been a lot of uncertainty, especially with the adoption of new technology, and we won’t really know how things will settle until we get binding appellate court decisions and/or new legislation and rules.

So, here are the public records topics that raised a lot of questions this past year—topics that we at MRSC are keeping an eye on in the coming year.

AI – It’s More Than Chat

ChatGPT and other generative AI programs dropped on many unsuspecting government agencies back in 2023, and it feels like the tech companies have only been ramping up AI integration ever since.

We’ve gotten several records-related questions surrounding AI-generated meeting recordings and transcriptions, as well as AI autonote-taking features. The answers to these questions often revolve around who caused the record to be created, for what purpose, and who has retention and access to the record. For example, see our response to this question: What are the retention requirements when using AI notetaking/summarizing functions in apps like Zoom or Teams during agency meetings?

But what if no one within the agency wanted to create the record in the first place?

Just last month, I attended what should have been a two-person Microsoft (MS) Teams meeting only to see that an AI “Facilitator” was also attending and automatically transcribing the meeting. Despite immediately turning the feature off, the program still transcribed the first part of the meeting and sent the attendees a link to the transcription and a summary of the portion of the meeting the Facilitator “attended”—leaving us with a myriad of public records questions.

Perhaps the most important questions were:

• How did this feature get turned on in the first place?
• Was it an auto-on feature for everyone in the organization or just the meeting organizer? (And how do we make sure it stays off unless we actually want to use it?)

As an agency subject to the PRA, this experience only reinforced MRSC’s commitment to stay vigilant in 2026. Every time new technology is implemented—or even merely updated—we must check to see what new features have been added and whether any settings have been automatically configured to create records.

The tendency of tech companies to push new technology and features by defaulting to “auto-on” rather than “opt-in” implementation means public records practitioners must be constantly checking and educating pretty much everyone within their organization to exercise caution.

Whenever acting on behalf of their agency or jurisdiction—regardless of the technology used—every public official and employee should be asking themselves: “Am I creating a record?” And then double-checking to be sure. It is my goal in 2026 to emphasize this need for vigilance.

FLOCK and Other Surveillance Cameras

Despite it being a very hot topic this past year, I have largely held off on writing much about the public records implications of FLOCK cameras.

FLOCK is a type of automated license plate reader camera that collects and analyzes vehicle data as the vehicle travels in the public right-of-way. Many jurisdictions in Washington and across the country have been using these cameras and the extensive data they collect in various law enforcement pursuits.

At MRSC, we try to focus on areas where we can share settled law and policy guidance— where we can point to laws, rules, court decisions, agency documents, and other precedents. We have shared several news articles online and in our e-newsletters, but any legal analysis I could have shared regarding FLOCK and other surveillance cameras would be based on extrapolation and analogy—and very smart people have reached very different legal conclusions. (Ask two lawyers the same question and you’ll get three answers).

There has been PRA litigation in the superior courts about FLOCK camera data and the process used to retrieve it, but superior court decisions only bind the parties involved, and they are merely advisory and do not bind other courts in the state. This means that a judge in one county’s superior court might reach a different result than another county’s superior court judge (or, for that matter, even another judge in the same court).

Only appeals court decisions bind future cases, and thus far, no appeals court has rendered a decision on the subject. So, we still have no settled law on exactly how the PRA applies to FLOCK data and whether any exemptions apply.

But while we wait for potential court of appeals decisions, there are reports that the state legislature may take up the topic—not just the public records component, but law enforcement use and access to such camera technology as well. See this recent Seattle Times article, WA could regulate Flock Safety and other license-plate readers in 2026 and SB 6002, which has been pre-filed with the state legislature. 

Once we have an appellate decision or new legislation addressing FLOCK camera and other license plate data, we’ll be sure to spread the word. Personally, I very much hope that 2026 does bring clarity to this issue.

Model Rules Update

Washington’s Public Records Act (PRA) has long required the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to adopt advisory model rules that are used by local governments to guide the creation of their own public records rules and procedures (RCW 42.56.570). Those model rules are located in Chapter 44-14 WAC.

In 2025, and in partial response to an earlier petition from transparency advocates (including the Seattle Times), the Attorney General (AG) began a formal rulemaking process to amend the Model PRA Rules to emphasize timely and diligent responses to records requests. Public comments were accepted on the proposal in November.

While there is no set timeline for final action on the proposed rule changes, we anticipate action sometime in the first half of 2026—perhaps in time for MRSC’s annual PRA legislative update webinar in June.

MRSC’s PRA Publication

In December 2025, MRSC published a completely revised version of its popular publication, Public Records Act For Washington Cities, Counties, and Special Purpose Districts.

This yearslong project integrated legal updates and practice tips to create a more practitioner-friendly resource. It reflects a lot of the conversations we’ve had with folks all over the state at all levels of public records management, so in many ways it is a reflection of all of you.

Of course, we already anticipate having to update that document in 2026—with Model Rule changes, new legislation, and anticipated court cases. Since we’ll be going back in anyway, if you see something that could use clarity, or even if we missed something entirely, please reach out and we’ll add it to the list of updates to consider!

Changes at the AG’s Local Government Public Records Consultation Program

We recently learned that Assistant Attorney General Morgan Damerow has been promoted to Chief Transparency Officer for the AGO. Previously, Morgan was the Open Government Ombuds and the lead attorney for the AG’s Local Government Public Records Consultation Program.

Importantly, he has joined me and other MRSC consultants on numerous MRSC webinars and trainings, as well as for other organizations’ presentations. He and I have spoken informally at length many times since I joined MRSC in 2018.

Just recently, we had a very successful “PRA Conversations” webinar, which organically grew out of our habit of standing around and talking about public records. I have very much enjoyed having another public records nerd to bounce ideas off of, challenge my legal analysis, and generally just have a geeky good time with. I will miss working and presenting with him and wish him great luck in 2026 and beyond.

That said, we at MRSC look forward to continuing to partner with the AG’s Local Government Public Records Consultation program, and I personally hope to rope some other poor soul into discussing the implications and applications of PRA law well past the allotted time.

Conclusion

So, things are changing and unsettled—the law, the technology, the partnerships. In a lot of ways, I feel like 2025 just raised or exacerbated a lot of issues.

I know it does not help when sometimes the best answer you can get is a shoulder-shrug emoji, but I have hope that 2026 brings certainty and clarity—we just have to wait and see.