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Often, yes. Many police departments accept a records request by fax: a short written request with the case number, a signed release form, and a copy of your photo ID. The report itself usually comes back to you by mail or in-person pickup, though, not as a fax sent back.
Keep it short and complete. The records clerk needs to find your report in their system and confirm you are entitled to it, so give them both halves: the identifiers that locate the report and the proof that you are you.
| Include | Example | Why they need it |
|---|---|---|
| Case or incident number | 2024-11842 | This is how the clerk finds the file; a date alone is often not enough |
| Date and location of the incident | March 3, parking lot of 5th and Main | Backup identifier in case the number is mistyped |
| Your name and role | Victim, witness, driver, or involved party | Some reports are only releasable to involved parties |
| Signed release or authorization form | The department's own records-release form, if they have one | Their legal basis for handing over someone's personal information |
| Copy of your photo ID | Driver's license or passport | Confirms the signature on the release matches a real person |
| Your return address and phone number | Where to send the report | Because the report is almost never faxed back to you |
Three reasons, and they are all reasonable. First, police reports are long: a multi-vehicle collision report with diagrams and witness statements can run twenty pages, and nobody wants to tie up the records fax line for that. Second, reports often contain personal information about other people, and departments are cautious about blasting that across an unverified fax line. Third, many reports need redaction before release, and the redacted version is a physical document the clerk prepares, not something that sits ready in a fax queue.
So the typical flow is: fax the request in, and the report comes out by mail or in-person pickup, sometimes for a small per-page copying fee. Call the records division first and ask both questions: "do you accept records requests by fax?" and "how do I receive the report?" The answers vary more than you would expect between departments.
Fax numbers on police websites go stale. Departments move records divisions, consolidate non-emergency lines, and forget to update the website. If your fax gets no confirmation within a few business days, call the records division directly and ask whether they received it and whether the fax number on the website is still the right one. Bring your confirmation page to the call: the date, time, and page count prove you sent it.
Also confirm the department's hours for records requests. Some records divisions only process requests on certain days, and a fax sent Friday afternoon may sit until Wednesday regardless of how fast it transmitted.
Sometimes, sometimes not. Reports involving you are the straightforward case. Reports where you are a third party, like a journalist, researcher, or curious neighbor, fall under public-records or freedom-of-information rules, which have their own process and their own exclusions. Reports involving juveniles, sexual assault victims, or active investigations are routinely withheld or heavily redacted regardless of how you ask. If the clerk says no by fax, they are not being difficult: they are following the release rules that bind them.
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