Tombstone officials this week doubled the fees for citizens to copy police records, now charging $10 per report, which freedom of information experts say flunks the test of “reasonable” rates and is probably illegal.

The fee is more than any other law enforcement agency in southern Arizona for public records, and is one of the highest in the state.

Tombstone Marshal Billy Cloud said the new charge reflects copy and material costs, and blames the rate hike on insurance companies’ requests for lengthy reports, much higher than the average two or three page police report.

“That’s actual costs, materials, and ink,” Cloud said.

“You can’t charge for the labor used,” Cloud added, though he noted every time a record was produced he had to remove an officer from the police force to make copies.

Freedom of information advocates, like David Cuillier, Freedom of Information Committee Chairman of the Society of Professional Journalists and interim director at the University of Arizona School of Journalism, are lambasting the hike as extraordinary and not reflective of actual expenses at all.

“That’s really odd,” Cuillier said. “In this day and age, you'd think a police department could have a system where it's pretty easy just to make a photocopy of a report. It should cost 1.5 cents per page for a copy of a public record—paper, toner, machine depreciation, the whole ball of wax.”

City Attorney Randy Bays said the charge complies with state law, that “agencies can charge a reasonable fee. Though he did not say labor was part of the $10 price tag, he added, “It’s not cost efficient to take an officer off the force to make a copy.”

But Dan Barr, a lawyer who specializes in media law and an adjunct professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, disagrees.

“Charging $10 for a police report regardless of its length is an unreasonable fee under the state public records law,” said Barr, a lawyer in Phoenix who defends First Amendment cases.

“I don’t know what they’re basing their claim of exorbitant fees on,” Cloud said, saying his small agency didn’t have the abilities of larger departments to procure records as cheaply. “If other agencies looked at real costs, I imagine their charges would go up as well.”

Those “real costs,” he stressed, included removing an officer from his force to make a copy. Although Cloud admitted that he knows charging for labor is not allowable under state law.

Arizona law (ARS 39-121) states that “copying and postage” is included as allowable expenses for reproducing public records.

The council voted unanimously—and without any discussion—to double the police report charge at the Oct. 11 general meeting.

While many city residents commented that the increase didn’t matter to them, or that they rarely had ever requested a police report, Mike Carrafa said he thought the price was a little high compared to Bisbee, where he’s requested reports and they charge by the page.

“I guess the city is trying to make some money,” Carrafa said. “I don’t know why they made it $10. It sounds kind of high. It doesn’t cost $10 to make a copy,” he said.

Cloud argued that “the majority of reports are for insurance companies,” who request lengthy reports. “Those are not one to two pages,” he said.

In terms of insurance claims, it varies whether individuals must pay for reports.

Victims get reports free of charge per state law, and it depends on the company whether an individual must obtain a report or a report will be requested by the company itself. So even though Cloud argued that the cost was for insurance companies requesting lengthy reports, that cost must now be borne by any citizen who wants a police report.

Although, Cuillier said such a rationale was a slippery slope into restricting the freedom of information for profit.

Such a defense “tells you that it’s really a revenue enhancement stream. They’re hoping to gouge corporations who are willing to pay it, but the average citizen loses out.”

In the rest of the state, records are generally much lower, with the exception of Lake Havasu City Police and Kingman Police both charging $10 for records, also regardless of page length, and Bullhead City charging $10 for the first 15 pages and $1 each additional page.

But surrounding areas charge much less. Mammoth, for example, which has a slightly larger but comparably small population as Tombstone, typically doesn’t even charge for records, according to their records department. Bisbee charges 25 cents a page; Benson charges 50 cents a page.

Though that $10 charge might be chump change to an insurance company, charging a citizen that amount for a few pages is outrageous, Cuillier said.

That’s because the charge deters individuals from requesting records, Cuillier said. He suggests citizens bring cameras to take pictures of records while they’re viewing the records for free instead of paying $10 for a copy.

Cuillier also said citizens of Tombstone should demand from council that the charge be reversed, and that citizens have the right to sue.

“How arrogant for the government to charge $10 just for a piece of paper,” Cuillier said. “It's really kind of an anti-American attitude, a totalitarian kind of attitude toward government. I don’t think they realize that’s the path of other countries, and our country was founded on different principles.”

And if citizens don’t care?
“Well, you know, they don’t care until they have to,” Barr said.

He said state law mandates part of Cloud’s job is gathering and maintaining records for the public.

When asked whether the fee deters individuals from scrutinizing the police force through high costs, Cloud answered, “I don’t know, it depends on what the information’s worth to you.”