Police put records fees on hold

The Spokane Police Department did not start charging residents a redaction fee to obtain public records Monday, as was planned.

“I was asked to hold off,” records manager Mike Busby said. “There will be some more review.”

For weeks, Busby had posted notices announcing a flat fee of $1.50 for any record in which personal information is blacked out by city employees – a process called “redacting” – plus 50 cents for each page with redacted information, such as the names of juvenile victims of sexual abuse.

Currently, the city charges nothing for those records, which are sought mostly by victims of theft and other property crimes to turn in to insurance carriers.

The other most commonly requested documents are traffic accident reports, for which the city will continue to charge a flat $12 fee.

The redaction fee is intended to offset the cost of researching and preparing records for public disclosure, according to the Police Department, which also handles records requests for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and the Spokane Valley Police Department.

But, as reported last week in The Spokesman-Review, the accident report fee and the new redacting fee appear to conflict with the state’s Public Disclosure Act. That law allows public agencies to charge only 15 cents a page for copying records, said Michele Earl-Hubbard, incoming president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

Greg Overstreet, a special assistant attorney general for government accountability, agreed with Earl-Hubbard that the redaction fee is not supported by state law.

Spokane City Attorney Mike Connelly said Monday he is reviewing the Police Department’s proposed fees. Because of the review, the fees were halted temporarily, he said.

Busby said he will wait for completion of the review before proceeding with any new fees. “I’m hoping for a quick answer,” he said.