Ferguson shooting: Council demands high fees to release files
Bureaucrats in Ferguson, Missouri, responding to requests
under the state's Sunshine Act to turn over government files about the fatal
shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of
some of their own employees' salaries before they will agree to release any
records, reports AP.
The move discourages journalists and civil rights groups
from investigating the shooting and its aftermath.
The city has demanded high fees to produce copies of records
that, under Missouri
law, it could give away free if it determined the material was in the public's
interest to see. Instead, in some cases, the city has demanded high fees with
little explanation or cost breakdown. It billed The Associated Press $135 an
hour — for nearly a day's work — merely to retrieve a handful of email accounts
since the shooting.
That fee compares with an entry-level, hourly salary of
$13.90 in the city clerk's office, and it didn't include costs to review the
emails or release them. The AP has not paid for the search.
Price-gouging for government files is one way that local,
state and federal agencies have responded to requests for potentially
embarrassing information they may not want released. Open records laws are
designed to give the public access to government records at little or no cost,
and have historically exposed waste, wrongdoing and corruption.
"The first line of defense is to make the requester go
away," said Rick Blum, who coordinates the Sunshine in Government
Initiative, a coalition of media groups that advocates for open government.
"Charging exorbitant fees to simply cut and paste is a popular
tactic."
Since Brown's death and ensuing protests, news
organizations, nonprofit groups and everyday citizens have submitted records
requests to Ferguson
officials, asking for police reports, records about Brown and the personnel
files of Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown August 9.
Organizations like the website Buzzfeed were told they'd
have to pay unspecified thousands of dollars for emails and memos about Ferguson 's
traffic-citation policies and changes to local elections. The Washington Post
said Ferguson
wanted no less than $200 for its requests.
A city spokeswoman referred inquiries about public records
requests to the city's attorney, Stephanie Karr, who declined to respond to
repeated interview requests from the AP since earlier this month.
Some state open records laws provide records for free or
little cost, while others like Missouri
can require fees that "result in the lowest charges for search, research
and duplication." The AP asked for a fee waiver because it argued the
records would serve the public interest, as the law allows, but that request
was denied.
A spokesman for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon referred questions
about the high fees to the state's attorney general, who handles
freedom-of-information complaints. A spokeswoman for his office said none had
been filed on the issue.
Nixon's office didn't charge the AP for copies of the
governor's calendar. Those records showed Nixon, a Democrat, didn't change his
schedule until five days after Brown's shooting — amid violent clashes between
police and protesters — so he could devote his time fully to managing the
crisis.
In late August, the AP asked Ferguson officials for copies of several
police officials' emails and text messages, including those belonging to Wilson
and Chief Thomas Jackson. The AP sought those records to reveal the city's
behind-the-scenes response to the shooting and public protests.
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