Athanassiou, Matthew v. Fall River, City of - Police Department (SPR 20260995)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records March 25, 2026 SPR26/0995 Amanda Matton Records Clerk Fall River Police Department 685 Pleasant Street Fall River, MA 02721 Dear Ms. Matton: On March 19, 2026, this office received your petition on behalf of the Fall River Police Department (Department) seeking a waiver of statutory limits on fees that may be assessed in responding to a public records request and permission to charge for time spent segregating and redacting responsive records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(c); G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). As required by law, I understand that the Department furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor, Nicholas Athanassiou. G. L. c. 66, § 10(c); G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv)(2). On March 18, 2026, Mr. Athanassiou requested, “[a]ll internal affairs records, including any and all complaints and investigative reports along with all other underlying documentation (interviews, photographs, video, etc.) for the following individuals: [5 identified individuals].” Petition to Assess Fees – Municipalities The Supervisor of Records (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. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). 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 extenuating circumstances. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). The statute sets out a two-prong test for determining whether the Supervisor may approve a municipality’s petition to allow the municipality to charge for time spent segregating or redacting records. The first prong is whether the request for records was made for a commercial 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

Amanda Matton SPR26/0995 Page 2 March 25, 2026 purpose. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). It is my determination that this request was not made for a commercial purpose. The second prong of the test is whether the fee represents an actual and good faith representation by the municipality to comply with the request. The Supervisor must consider 1) if the fee is necessary such that the request could not have been prudently completed without the redaction or segregation or fee in excess of $25 per hour; 2) the amount of the fee is reasonable; and 3) the fee is not designed to limit, deter or prevent access to requested public records. Id. Fee Estimates – Municipalities A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.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). 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). Current Petition In its March 19th petition, in addition to charging for segregation and redaction required by law under Exemption (a), the Department argues the following in support of its request to charge for segregation and redaction under Exemptions (c): Redactions are necessary to safeguard private information, prevent unwarranted intrusions into personal privacy, preserve the integrity of ongoing or potential investigations, mitigate the risk of identity theft or fraud, and comply with Public Records Law. Fee in Excess of $25.00 per Hour In its petition, the Department is seeking to charge an hourly rate of $48.37 for review. The Department provides the following in support of its request to charge fees in excess of

Amanda Matton SPR26/0995 Page 3 March 25, 2026 $25.00 per hour: The Fall River Police Department seeks to respond to the above listed request; however, given the number of records pertaining to the request and seeing how these requested records are considered restricted-access documents, it would result in significant time being spent to compile, segregate, redact, and reproduce said records. Due to the sensitive nature of these records, access to them is strictly limited to one office. Within the agency, only the two officer assigned to the Office of Professional Standards have authorized access to these records. Particularly [an identified police lieutenant] and [an identified police sergeant] (lowest paid employee $48.37)[.] These officers possess the necessary system permissions, training, and experience required to retrieve, review, and properly redact the requested materials in compliance with applicable laws and privacy protections. There are no other employees within the agency who have access to these records or who can be assigned this task. As such, the retrieval, review, and redaction of the requested documents must be performed by one of these two authorized officer, which is the basis for the associated fee being assessed for the time required to fulfill the request. At this time, the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill to complete the search and segregation is [an identified police sergeant] whose hourly rate is $48.37 hr. This individual is the lowest paid employee in the Office of Professional Standards who has knowledge and training pertaining to Public Records Law exemptions, as well as data extraction, redaction software aptitude, and access to requested records… Conclusion The Department is advised that the current language of Exemption (c) prohibits its application to records related to law enforcement misconduct investigations. See G. L. c. 4, § (26)(c). In this case, where the requested records appear to relate to a law enforcement misconduct investigation, and given the public interest served by limiting the cost of the public access to the requested records, I am unable to grant permission to charge for time spent segregating or redacting the records or grant permission to charge in excess of $25.00 an hour. However, please note that this does not preclude the Department from charging for segregation and redaction that is required by law under Exemption (a) at a rate of $25.00 per hour.

Amanda Matton SPR26/0995 Page 4 March 25, 2026 Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Nicolas Athanassiou