The law enforcement agencies’ minimum fees, experts say, contradict Wisconsin state law that states any charges for records requests must be tied to a calculation of the actual cost of producing the records.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

Richland County upped the price for producing public records last year. The Richland Center Police Department has a similar fee. Both policies flout the state’s open records law, experts say. 

An update on a Richland County Sheriff’s Office webpage says that people requesting records will have to pay a minimum fee of $25. The office charges additional fees for producing reports, radio and phone recordings, and videos. The Richland Center Police Department mirrors the policy.

“I updated the open record fees in late 2023 due to the number of open records requests that the department was receiving and the time it was taking us for a small department to collect and redact the media if needed,” said Chief Billy Jones of the Richland Center Police Department.

But the fee is “clearly a violation of the state’s open records law,” wrote Bill Leuders, the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. “The authorities who have fabricated this additional charge are exposing themselves to legal action they will lose, with taxpayers footing the bill.”

“Clearly illegal,” said Tom Kamenick, an attorney and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, a law firm which practices open records law. The attorney often represents The Badger Project in records lawsuits.

Wisconsin law says that fees imposed for records requests “may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction and transcription of record, unless a fee is otherwise specifically established or authorized to be established by law.” 

An authority may impose a fee upon the requester of a copy of a record which may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction and transcription of the record, unless a fee is otherwise specifically established or authorized to be established by law.

Wisconsin open records law, section 19.35(3)(a)

The records policy for the Richland County Sheriff’s Office was updated by the Richland County Board, Tricia Clements, the county administrator, told The Badger Project in an email. Clements said she’s speaking with the county’s legal consultants “regarding the validity of the policy.” 

A guide from the state Department of Justice says printing an electronic record should cost a fraction of a cent per page. The guide also recommends record keepers waive fees associated with copying digital records from one format to another for distribution.

“For some reason, law enforcement agencies tend to have a bad habit of adopting flat fees for record requests, but the law does not allow that,” wrote Kamenick. “They have to calculate what their own ‘actual, necessary and direct’ costs are and they can charge no more than that.”

“The requests started to become more than we could handle in a timely manner. As for the state statute,” Jones wrote in an email, “I had no idea it existed.” 

The chief said he believes the time required to find and review the cases and body camera footage requested for redactions is more costly than the $25 fee. He said his department frequently decreases the charge if the report requested is small and doesn’t include body camera footage.

“This may be something that needs to be revisited and removed or adjusted,” Jones said about the policy.

The Badger Project is an independent, reader-supported news nonprofit in Wisconsin.