$20 for a police report? Mississippi city gouges public

The city of Richland, Miss., is gouging the public for public records copies and fortunately the Clarion Ledger called them on it in a recent story. The news story lists the outrageous charges for copies, including $20 for a copy of a police incident report. Ironically, the city increased fees in response to new state laws that were intended to make public records more easily accessible. The problem here is the law allows agencies to charge for the cost of searching, reviewing and duplicating records. The city claims it costs $20 in staff time to search, duplicate and copy a police incident report. Sounds bogus to me. If an agency makes such a claim demand to see how the charges are calculated. Does it take a clerk an hour or two to find and copy an incident report? If so, does that point to inefficiencies in the city's record keeping? To put it in perspective, think about how much Kinko's charges you to make a copy - 8 cents a page. And Kinko's, unlike a city, is out to make a profit. The long-term solution is to change the law to prohibit agencies from charging for search and review time. Some states allow agencies to charge for the actual copying only (paper and toner). That usually reduces some of the gouging.