Collin Dias v. Fall River, City of - Police Department (SPR 20252988)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records October 20, 2025 SPR25/2988 Ashley Ferreira Records Clerk Fall River Police Department 685 Pleasant Street Fall River, MA 02721 Dear Ms. Ferreira: I have received the petition of Collin Dias appealing the response of the Fall River Police Department (Department) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On July 21, 2025, Mr. Dias requested, “[a]ny police report that mentions the following key words: . . . from January 1st, 2020, until July 19th, 2025.” The Department initially responded on July 21, 2025, assigning the request reference number P005253-072125. Previous Appeals This request was the subject of previous appeals. See SPR25/2144 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (July 31, 2025) and SPR25/2339 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (August 18, 2025). In my August 18th determination, I ordered the Department to revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $276.30 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). I also encouraged Mr. Dias and the Department to communicate to facilitate providing records more efficiently and affordably. The Department responded on August 26, 2025, updating its fee estimate. Unsatisfied with the Department’s response, Mr. Dias petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR25/2988, was opened as a result. Fee Estimates – Municipalities A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.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). 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

Ashley Ferreira SPR25/2988 Page 2 October 20, 2025 Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first 2 (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. 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 Department’s August 26th Response In its August 26, 2025 response, the Department assessed a fee of $273.30 to provide the responsive records. In support of the fee estimate, the Department stated as follows: Your request was for any police report with the following key words... for 1/1/20 thru 7/19/25. To extract this data the program must run [each key word]… for dates 1/1/20 thru 7/19/25. Doing this is very time consuming it took a total of 9 hours to run the above combinations since it was for 4 ½ year request. Once this was complete, time had to be taken to go through 125 reports and find if it related to your search for example for [one key word] it gave back person’s other than [an identified individual] (different first name’s same last name) and for Mayor if this happen to be part of individual’s last name example Sotomayor that had to be taken out. 3 hours. Remaining 51 reports need to be appropriately redacted average 5 mins/report = 5 Hours. These redactions without getting into specifics of each of the 51 records, where required by law, and mostly constituted those as defined under Exemption A (exempt by statute) namely, victim, witness and family information, and information related to certain statutes as defined within same, and Exemption C (privacy); regarding personal information of individuals which would constitute an invasion of privacy without the person’s consent. Rate of lowest paid employee is $18.42 Run combinations- 9 hours Compile final reports for redaction- 3 hours Redact reports- 5 hours Total 17 hours – 2 hours waived = 15 hours 15 x 18.42 = 273.30

Ashley Ferreira SPR25/2988 Page 3 October 20, 2025 Current Appeal In his appeal petition, Mr. Dias stated, “[t]he police department did not get authorization to count hours for redacting reports. I also question the response itself. I believe it is not accurate and the police department just wants to protect [an identified individual].” Fee Waivers G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(v) provides the following with respect to waiving a fee for the production of responsive records: the records access officer may waive or reduce the amount of any fee charged under this subsection upon a showing that disclosure of a requested record is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor, or upon a showing that the requestor lacks the financial ability to pay the full amount of the reasonable fee. Please be advised, although the Supervisor may encourage fees to be waived, the Supervisor may not mandate that a records access officer waive fees assessed for complying with a public records request; rather, as described above, the records access officer may waive or reduce the amount of any fee upon a showing of various factors. See G. L. c. 66, § 10 (d)(v); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(k). Reasonableness of the Fee Estimate Although the Department states that it would take 17 hours to produce and redact the responsive records, it is unclear why the Department requires this much time. In this case, the Department confirmed that it took 9 hours to search for and 3 hours to compile the responsive records, and 5 additional hours to redact the remaining 51 reports at 5 minutes per report. However, if redactions are required, I find the Department must provide additional information about how the responsive records contain information that is required by law to be segregated or redacted, as well as the applicable statutes, if any. Pursuant to the Public Records Law, a fee may 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)(ii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Consequently, the Department’s fee may not include time for segregation or redaction under Exemption (c), nor for other redactions not required by law. Further, the Department states that it requires 5 minutes to redact each of the 51 reports. However, it is unclear why the Department requires this amount of time to redact each report. Specifically, the Department must indicate the number of pages per each report and how many minutes per page to redact each of the records.

Ashley Ferreira SPR25/2988 Page 4 October 20, 2025 For the reasons discussed above, I find the Department must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $273.30 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). This office encourages Mr. Dias and the Department 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 the records sought more efficiently and affordably). Any revision to the request would result in the requirement to issue a revised fee estimate. Conclusion Accordingly, the Department is ordered to provide Mr. Dias with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten (10) business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of the response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Mr. Dias may appeal the substantive nature of the Department’s response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Collin Dias