Accident reports to cost less as city complies with open records law

The cost of getting an accident report from Shelbyville police will drop considerably once the city passes a resolution to come into line with the state's open records laws.

City manager Ed Craig explained during Tuesday's study session that the state's open records law was amended in 2008, creating the Office of Open Records Council.

The ORC determined what the appropriate charges a municipality could charge for documents covered under the Tennessee's Public Records Act.

The city's practice has been to charge $5 for an accident report from the police department, but it is the opinion of the Municipal Technical Advisory Service that those are open records and that only 15 cents can be charged, Craig said.

While the city may lose some revenue, Shelbyville will be complying with the new law.

Councilman Lee Roy Cunningham told the council he was recently at a state meeting where he was told it was illegal to charge more than 15 cents.

The city currently does not have a written policy, Craig said, and Shelbyville has typically charged 25 cents per copy.

The state's schedule of charges provides for the charge of 15 cents per copy, but the city can also charge for labor if fulfilling the request takes more than an hour of an employee's time.

Mayor Wallace Cartwright said that the time consumed to grant some of the records requests can be considerable. Craig gave the council an recent example of a records request he called "extraordinary in its demands."

"Acting under the state open records policy, we did a review to see what it would take .... and the estimated cost was $700, and notified the person with the seven-day period ... and I required a $500 deposit to do it," Craig said. "As of yet, I don't have a deposit."

Most of the time, open records requests are not an issue, Craig explained, "but sometimes you get people that want to see everything you can possibly imagine ... and this takes time and effort."

One request took "24 actual working hours to produce it," Craig said.

According to the state's Office of Open Records Council, the schedule of reasonable charges is to be reviewed at least annually.

A custodian of a public record can't charge a fee for inspections, but he or she can charge for copies of a government document.

Aside from the 15 cent per page fee, if the record is in color, the custodian can charge 50 cents per page.

The schedule of charges cannot be arbitrary and "excessive fees and other rules shall not be used to hinder access to non-exempt public records," the office says.

Also, the records custodian could reduce or waive, in whole or in part, any charge only in accordance with the city's properly adopted written policy.

Records custodians are not required to produce the requested records immediately, but if they are readily available "and there is no need to review and redact, then the records should be made available as 'promptly' as possible," the office said.

If the record can't be made available promptly, the custodian has seven days to either make the records available, deny the request in writing or submit a written explanation of how long it will take to produce the request.

The TPRA does not distinguish requests for inspection of records based on the intended use, whether it is for research, personal, or commercial purposes

Controversy recently arose in Tullahoma after a change in procedure resulted in delays for anyone to get copies of police reports and all other municipal records, according to The Tullahoma News.

Previously, police reports in Tullahoma were accessed through the police department, where the public could purchase copies upon verbal request. However, now the requests have to be made in writing at the city government front desk.

The council will hold its regular meeting next Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. in the courtroom of the Shelbyville Police Department.