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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Ind. Gov't. - Police charge too much for incident reports; ILB asks what about crash reports?

Matt Thacker has this story in the Floyd/Clark County News & Tribune:

Several local police departments charge more for incident reports than allowed under Indiana statute, according to state officials.

The Jeffersonville and Clarksville police departments charge $5 for a copy of an incident report. The New Albany Police Department charges $3 for a copy of an incident report, and the Clark County Sheriff’s Department charges 50 cents per page.

Amy Miller, assistant to the Indiana public access counselor, said that incident reports fall under the same state statute that limits how much agencies can charge for copies of any documents. That means they cannot charge more than 10 cents per page.

The Charlestown and Sellersburg police departments and the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department do not charge for incident reports.

“Prior to 1997, there wasn’t a delineation or statute that specifically limited copying fees,” said Stephen Key, legal counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association. “You saw copy fees going from 25 cents to a dollar a page.”

In 1997, a state bill passed that limited copy fees to the “actual cost” to produce the copy, or 10 cents per page, whichever is greater. A recent provision allows for a 25-cent-per-page charge for color copies.

“I’ve seen cases where they’ll apply the same fee for accident reports as they do for incident reports,” Key said. “In the cases where it’s been brought to their attention, they have repealed the ordinances.”

Under the Indiana Code, accident reports must cost at least $5. Application fees for handgun permits can range from $10 to $50 depending on the type of permit.

No statute mentions incident reports, also known as case reports, which may lead some police departments to erroneously treat them the same as accident reports.

“The public access counselor ruled several years ago that you can only charge 10 cents per page for an incident report,” said Charles Pride, supervisor for the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

He said the accounting board does look at fees when conducting an audit of a police department, but none of the local police officials The Evening News and The Tribune spoke to knew that there was a limit to how much they could charge for incident reports.

Clarksville Police Department Chief Dwight Ingle said the fee was raised from $3 to $5 before he became chief.

“I always felt bad for the person whose car was broken into and didn’t have insurance and we’re charging them for a report, but that’s the way it’s always been done,” Ingle said.

New Albany Police Department Maj. Sherri Knight said their rates for copy fees have not changed since at least 1992.

“We’ve tried to make it a nominal fee,” she said. “If the state mandated it was supposed to be different, we would certainly comply.”

Jeffersonville Police Department Chief Tim Deeringer and City Councilman Nathan Samuel — who serves as liaison to the police department — did not respond to requests for comment.

Jeffersonville Communications Director Larry Thomas provided The Evening News with a copy of a letter former Police Chief Mike Pavey wrote to the city council in 1996 requesting the cost of blotter and case reports increase from $1 to $5 in order to cover expenses.

The council then passed an ordinance which allowed the Jeffersonville Board of Public Works and Safety to set copy fees for all types of police reports. The statute the council used to justify the fee increase was repealed in 2003.

“If that’s what they say we’re supposed to do, we’ll do our best to comply with the rules,” Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden said when told about the opinion from the state.

Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills said his department does not charge for incident reports.

“We try to do as much without charging as possible,” Mills said. “I don’t think you should be charged for something like that.”

Charlestown Police Department Detective Chuck Ledbetter said they charged a copy fee 10 years ago, but have not since they hired a full-time records clerk.

“We always had a policy that any victim wouldn’t have to pay for a report,” Ledbetter said.

Anyone who is charged too much for copy fees can file a formal complaint with the public access counselor at www.in.gov/pac.

People who have paid too much for copies in the past could request a refund, Miller said. However, the counselor only issues opinions and cannot fine any agency that does not comply.

“That would be a decision for a court to make,” Miller said.

What about crash reports? Marion County charges $12.00/report.

The crash reports issue has come up so often, the Public Access Counselor in March of 2007 wrote a special memo on them. Here is a copy from the ILB; the memo is also available on the PAC site, but only in Word format. Also of interest is this informal opinion from March 31, 2008, relating to:

accident reports (“crash reports”) created by the Department and sent electronically to the information maintenance and reporting system contracted by the Indiana State Police. * * *

The Department must, upon request, provide access for a requester to inspect crash reports created by the Department. How the Department provides access for inspection is an administrative matter for you to determine, so long as the procedure does not contravene the inspection requirements of the APRA. I have suggested that police departments might provide a public computer terminal to allow inspection. I understand this is not the best solution for all departments, though, since questions of the availability of an extra computer, access to all electronic records, and others, might arise. In the alternative, a department may print copies of the requested crash reports (or all crash reports, if requested), allow the requester to inspect and transcribe the reports in the office, and then collect the copies back from the requester. Certainly if the requester decided he wished to obtain a copy, the Department could then charge the statutory fee for a copy of a crash report. I cannot say how many departments utilize either suggestion or employ a different procedure, but I do understand the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department uses the latter method, providing public access copies of crash reports for inspection upon request.

While I understand the Department’s concerns about the personnel and financial resources required to provide access to the crash reports, those concerns do not negate the rights of the public to inspect public records at no charge, as provided in the APRA.

Here is a copy of the "Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Crash Information Exchange Form," as currently provided by IMPD police officers to drivers at an accident site. Your opinions are: (1) Buy a copy of the report online at BuyCrash.com -- the cost is $12.00, there is no indication where the money goes. Or you may buy a report by mail, either from Crash.com, or, as indicated on the IMPD form, from the IMPD Citizen's Services Branch, again for $`12.00.

To quote again from the story this morning from the News & Tribune:

Amy Miller, assistant to the Indiana public access counselor, said that incident reports fall under the same state statute that limits how much agencies can charge for copies of any documents. That means they cannot charge more than 10 cents per page.
According to that, these crash reports should cost less than $1.00, NOT $12.00 each.

But assuming that "crash reports" are the same as "accident reports," there is a separate statute governing the fee for accident reports. IC 9-29-11 begins:

Sec. 1. (a) Except as provided in subsection (c), the main department, office, agency, or other person under whose supervision a law enforcement officer carries on the law enforcement officer's duties may charge a fee that is fixed by ordinance of the fiscal body in an amount not less than five dollars ($5) for each report.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 24, 2009 10:10 AM
Posted to Indiana Government