Paying for public information

The cost of accessing public information gets brought to light in this blurb from the Nevada Press Association newsletter. It needs no further comment other than: Outrageous.

"The cost to obtain copies of public records is frequently a barrier to access, as illustrated in a couple of recent Neivada stories. For the Las Vegas Review-Journal's five-day investigative series on police shootings, the newspaper was charged $11,000 in search and redaction costs for police reports covering 20 years, involving 378 shootings and 115 deaths.

"That would be a bargain, though, compared with the estimate of $940,000 given to a group wanting to review and copy records of Nevada's foreclosure mediation program. That figure includes $1 a page for about 600,000 documents, plus $16 an hour for researching and redacting.

"Yes, there are actual costs incurred by governments in producing records. Too often, however, fees are used as a first line of defense against providing documents to their owners, the public. Recall how Karen Gray was initially told a few years ago by the Clark County School District that it would charge her $4,000 just to look at e-mails, a figure revised to $135 and then, according to a judge, free."