Maya Al-Ahmad v. Brockton, City of (SPR 20212413)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records September 29, 2021 SPR21/2413 Allison M. Cogliano, Esq. Assistant City Solicitor Law Department City of Brockton 45 School Street - City Hall Brockton, MA 02301 Dear Attorney Cogliano: I have received the petition of Maya Al-Ahmad appealing the response of the City of Brockton (City) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Ms. Al-Ahmad requested the “copies of a list of all police traffic FIOs and police traffic citations for the years 2017-2020 including the date and time of the stop, the location of the stop including the street and address, the name of the officer(s) making the stop, the race of the persons being stopped, and the race of the officer making the stop.” Previous appeal This request was the subject of a previous appeal. See SPR21/1579 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (July 9, 2021). The City provided a response on July 8, 2021. Unsatisfied with the City’s response, Ms. Al-Ahmad petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR21/2242, was opened as a result. Fee estimate – municipalities A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.05) per page may be assessed for a black and white single or double-sided photocopy of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(i). Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first (two) 2 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, 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

Allison M. Cogliano, Esq. SPR21/2413 Page 2 September 29, 2021 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. However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). 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 under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). The City’s July 8th Response On July 8, 2021, the City provided Ms. Al-Ahmad with a response indicating that “the fee estimate the City is seeking is for the 443.5 hours to print or convert to PDF each of the 857 FIOs and 21,318 traffic citations and the 739.17 hours it would take to read and redact each of them. That totals $29,566.75.” The City thanked Ms. Al-Ahmad’s “willingness to modify the scope of [her] request and withdraw the request for racial data. That subtracts roughly 370 hours from the City's time.” In its July 8th response, the City explained, “[t]he challenge to the 443.5 hours estimated to print the documents [Ms. Al-Ahmad is] requesting. In order to properly redact these reports, which, as [Ms. Al-Ahmad] knows, are being printed from a database, the reports have to either 1) be physically printed or 2) be converted to PDF format. This is to get it into some format from which the City can redact. Whether it's electronic or physical (please note we are not charging for the time it would take to then scan in the documents after redacting) the document still needs to be put into redactable format, one way or another.” In addition the City said there is redactable information “such as SSNs and DOBs. However, this is not the only redactable information. Narratives and witness names, addresses, telephone numbers, and private information included in FIOs and traffic citations may also be included.” The City further explained, “[t]hese reports may contain information which is exempt under G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(e) which exempts from public record ‘investigatory materials necessarily compiled out of the public view by law enforcement or other investigatory officials the disclosure of which materials would probably so prejudice the possibility of effective law enforcement that such disclosure would not be in the public interest.’ The intent behind this exemption is, for example, to not only protect the integrity of police investigation but to also protect the identities and personal information of witnesses. Additionally, M.G.L. ch. 6 §167 exempts C.O.R.I. from being disclosed. In order to ensure compliance with this state statute, the City is required to read through each of the FIOs and traffic citations you've requested which is where the additional 739.17 comes from (2 minutes per report/citation). This information is included in reports and cannot be excluded.”

Allison M. Cogliano, Esq. SPR21/2413 Page 3 September 29, 2021 Based on the City’s July 8th response, it is unclear why the City requires the amount of time listed above to produce the requested records and “to print or convert to PDF.” The City must provide further information on the details regarding the tasks involved, including the time it is allocating to compiling, segregating, redacting and reproducing the requested records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv) (requiring the amount of the fee be reasonable). The City must clarify these matters, including the time that is needed to perform segregation and redaction as required by law. This office continues to encourage Ms. Al-Ahmad and the City to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. See G. L. c. 66, §10(b)(vii) (a municipality shall suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the requestor to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably). Conclusion Accordingly, the City is ordered to provide Ms. Al-Ahmad with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within 10 business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Maya Al-Ahmad