Brook Hopkins v. Agawam, Town of - Police Department (SPR 20180037)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division

Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records .

January 18, 2017

SPR18/037 Patrick M. Toney, Esq.

Records Access Officer Town of Agawam

176 Chestnut Street Clinton, MA 01510

Dear Attorney Toney:

I have received your petition on behalf of the Town of Agawam (Town) seeking to charge a fee in excess of $25 an hour. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). On December 13, 2017, Brook Hopkins from Harvard Law School requested “arrest records for all individuals made between December 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016” inclusive of various information related to the arrest and arrestee.

Petitions for ability to assess fees

Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii). Where appropriate, municipalities may include as part of the fee an hourly rate equal to or less than the hourly rate attributed to the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce a record requested, but the fee shall not be more than $25 per hour. Id.

A fee shall not be assessed for time spent segregating or redacting records unless such segregation or redaction is required by law or approved by the Supervisor of Records

(Supervisor) under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii); 950 CMR 32.06(4).

The Supervisor may approve a petition from a municipality to charge for time spent segregating or redacting or to charge in excess of $25 per hour, if the Supervisor determines that 1) the request is for a commercial purpose or 2) the fee represents an actual and good faith representation by the municipality to comply with the request, the fee is necessary such that the request could not have been prudently completed without the redaction, segregation or fee in excess of $25 per hour, and the amount of the fee is reasonable and the fee is not designed to limit, deter or prevent access to requested public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv).

One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 * (617) 727-2832 Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre * pre@sec.state.ma.us

Patrick M. Toney, Esq. SPR18/037 Page 2 January 18, 2018

In rendering such a decision, the Supervisor is required to consider the following: a) the public interest served by limiting the cost of public access to the records; b) the financial ability

of the requestor to pay the additional or increased fees; and c) any other relevant extenuatin circumstances. Id. , .

Conclusion

In an email sent to this office on December 27, 2017 by Benji Lu, also of Harvard Law School, the requestor indicates “[w]e do intend to put a hold on our requests to other police departments.” Accordingly, I find in light of the December 27" email in which the requestor

indicates an intention to put a hold on the request for records, it is unnecessary to opine on the Town’s petition at this time.

Sincerely,

Rebecca S. Murray ,

Supervisor of Records cc: Brook Hopkins