A federal investigation began quickly after the Capitol riots took place on Jan. 6.

The investigation led to warrants and nationwide highly publicized arrests of protesters who had traveled by car, bus and plane to Washington, D.C. and who later returned home.

As we have reported, two of the arrests were of men from East Texas.

We learned about the arrests on a federal holiday and wondered then how we best could get information from the FBI.

As our reporter was making calls the following day to see where to submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the Dallas office of the FBI returned her call from the previous day.

The office gave us a link for the documents related to the story. The resource they pointed us to did not just include information for the East Texas men charged, but for all arrests related to the Capitol riots. The FBI was forthcoming with details, documents, photos and additional information.

The arrests by the FBI affirmed that those accused of going inside the Capitol would enter the legal system and duly face judgment if found guilty.

In a time when we sometimes struggle to get documents from agencies and courts in East Texas, the FBI showed there is a way to be efficient and transparent.

This was not one agency. It was local, state and federal agencies working together to make arrests through the court system and get the information out to the public.

Filing requests for documents takes time, especially when it must be done for several departments in a county. A lot of those arrests are not complex and involve many agencies.

We hope the quick action of the FBI and its effort to make information accessible will be an example of how other levels of government can work to be transparent and thereby highlight the important work of law enforcement in their communities.