The city of Ferguson, Missouri, demands high fees to retrieve documents in the wake of Michael Brown’s shooting last month. “Organizations like the website Buzzfeed were told they’d have to pay unspecified thousands of dollars for emails and memos about Ferguson’s traffic-citation policies and changes to local elections,” Jack Gillum reports. “The Washington Post said Ferguson wanted no less than $200 for its requests.”
Related: 4 types of FOIAs and how to use them for your reporting | FOIA lessons from Gawker Editor John Cook
Gillum says the city “wanted nearly $2,000 to pay a consulting firm for up to 16 hours of work to retrieve messages on its own email system” when AP “asked for copies of several police officials’ emails and text messages.” Technicians might have to look at tape backups, the consulting firm told Gillum.
FOIA hounds on MuckRock shared some strategies for getting around high fees last year. The NSA hit MuckRock co-founder Michael Morisy with high fees for a public records request last year because it decided he wasn’t a legitimate member of the press.
Sometimes pushing back against exorbitant fees works: The Mackinac Center for Public Policy sued the city of Westland, Michigan over high fees last year. Westland later agreed to restructure its fee scale.
AP “asked for a fee waiver because it argued the records would serve the public interest, as the law allows, but that request was denied,” Gillum reports.
