Hancock County Government

Office of County Surveyor

Access to Public Records Policy 

The Access to Public Records Act, located at IC 5-14-3, guarantees persons and organizations, including the media, access to public records held by public bodies, public officials and public employees. Please note that all records held by the Surveyor’s office are not public records. Please refer to IC 5-14-3 for all the rights accorded to you under Indiana law, as well as the prohibitions on disclosure of certain documents to the public or media.  

It is the policy of the Hancock County Surveyor that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of County government and the official acts of those elected officials whose actions are maintained in the Surveyor’s office. It is the policy of the Hancock County Surveyor that the burden of proof for the nondisclosure of a public record on any public agency maintained in the Surveyor’s office that would deny access to the record is upon the Surveyor’s office and not on the person or organization seeking to inspect and copy the record.  

Any person may inspect and copy the public records of this office during regular business hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., local time. Requests for inspection or copying of a public record must: 

1. Identify with reasonable particularity the record being requested
2. Be completed, in writing, on the prescribed form available in the Surveyor’s office or accessible from the Hancock County Surveyor’s webpage found at http://www.hancockin.gov/296/Surveyor

The Surveyor’s office will accept your request, free of charge, in person or via facsimile 

[317.477.1715] and review it for compliance with the above policy. Within seven days, the Surveyor’s office will provide the requestor with the office’s decision to approve or deny the records request, with a reasoning provided for a denial for inspection or copying.  

If approved, the Surveyor’s office will allow the individual or organization requesting the information to inspect the requested public documents or provide the requested copies to the person making the request, or allow the person making the request to make copies on the 

Surveyor’s copying equipment or on the requester’s own equipment, provided the requestor brings the equipment to the Surveyor’s office. The cost for 8½” x 11” or 8½” x 14” copies made by the requestor on the Surveyor’s copying equipment is $0.07 per page, and copies made by the Surveyor’s office staff at the request of the requestor is $0.25 per page. A schedule of photocopy fees for standard and non-standard paper sizes may be found in Section 34.23 of the Hancock County Code of Ordinances.

A copy of the Public Records Request form can be downloaded by clicking here.  

Chad Coughenour

Surveyor, Hancock County Indiana