When a police encounter occurs, most people lean on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get their hands on the police report and body camera footage, expecting to receive a few digital files back, a reasonable turnaround, and a relatively low fee.
After all, how expensive can it be to send someone a PDF and a couple video files? Or hey, let’s get really crazy and imagine they send a zip file with all of it inside. Oh, how naive I was…
What is FOIA?
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was first launched back in 1967, aiming to easily put information in citizens’ hands about their elected officials, allowing them to make informed decisions in voting as well as speak up against wrongdoing. It would be embraced later in Michigan, in 1976.
Regardless of the program’s age, FOIA requests remain important today. These requests are vital to the press in doing their job. It is also an important tool allowing citizens to enforce government accountability.
It is often suspected that agencies place high costs on FOIA requests to discourage people from obtaining records. Even though by law, they are required to have them and therefore, have to fund them.
You can submit a FOIA request to any government agency. You can find out more here on how to submit a FOIA request.
In this case, I submitted a request to the Michigan State Police.
The Request Timeline
For this example, I made the request on July 25, 2022. It took 6 business days for the MSP Records department to reply to me outside of the automated response message.
They then informed me they needed 10 more business days to review and quote my request; I have since learned this is pretty standard. I received the quote one day before the Michigan State Police’s due date, and upon opening the attachments, my jaw involuntarily dropped.
The total came to $124.51, with $117.15 of that attributed to 3.5 hours of labor alone. All for 30 minutes of footage and maybe a 2-page-report at best, for an event that happened less than a month ago. I still can’t say for certain how many pages or what the file size of any of this information would be because I still haven’t seen the report or the warrant. Needless to say, I was gobsmacked.
Total Time: In total, it took nearly one month to simply receive a quote. Not the information I asked for, a quote.
Examining the FOIA Request Cost Breakdown
Here was the breakdown:
- Labor Fees (with an Assistant FOIA Coordinator doing the work, apparently): $117.15
- An 8 GB Flashdrive: $5.68
- Flat Rate Envelope: $1.42
- Postage: $0.26
First of all, can we stop and appreciate their need to find a better deal on their flash drives? Take note, MSP: it pays to shop around, especially when you’re shopping with taxpayer funds. At the time of writing, I effortlessly found bulk packages of 8 GB flash drives placing them under $3.00 per flash drive.
Second, I am just one lone investigative criminal justice advocate, how much do government agencies charge newspapers or media outlets for information that should be easily accessible by the public and for the public?
Lack of bargain-hunting aside, the most troubling fact about Michigan FOIA requests, is the way they can legally charge for labor:
Labor costs for the search, location, and examination of public records which will be calculated using the hourly wage of the department’s lowest paid employee capable of conducting the search, location, and examination, whether or not they are available or perform the labor. Such labor costs shall be estimated and charged in increments of 15 minutes with all partial increments rounded down. The hourly wage will be based on the department’s payroll records for the applicable fiscal year. Labor costs shall also include up to 50% of the hourly wage to partially cover the cost of fringe benefits, not to exceed the actual cost of fringe benefits.
Michigan State Police FOIA Request Policy
This means that the MSP can charge you the going rate for the Assistant FOIA Coordinator to pull the request, but an intern could do the entire thing unpaid, minus the flash drive and postage of course. In theory, MSP could turn a profit on certain FOIA Requests.
I couldn’t help but wonder: why couldn’t a Michigan governmental entity do the same thing, especially when the law allows it? It is not out of the realm of possibility when you consider it often works in the reverse situation: private companies use a similar approach by submitting requests and repackaging the information for profit.
Follow the Money: Examining the Michigan State Police Budget
In a Michigan House Budget report for the fiscal year 2020-2021, the Michigan State Police was expected to receive $145,079,300 in State funding alone.
Among its major functions, the budget allows for records and information management and sharing, funding the FOIA department in various ways.
- The Criminal Justice Information Center employs 155 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and maintains a budget of $22,076,200; this number includes an undetermined number of personnel devoted to processing FOIA requests and maintaining other records. Employees likely handle multiple tasks and are not solely dedicated to FOIA requests.
- Another 42 FTEs are assigned to Executive direction positions with a budget of $6,714,000, with an undisclosed amount dedicated to the Records Resource section.
It was vindicating to learn that FOIA requests do generate revenue for the Michigan State Police. Three items in the 2021-2022 report, in particular, are noteworthy:
- Under Information Technology: The Criminal Justice Service Center generated $10,197,200 in fees including fingerprinting, concealed pistol licensing, criminal record checks, and FOIA Requests.
- Under Department Administration and Support: The Criminal $2,290,500 in fees for various services including FOIA requests.
- Under Law Enforcement Services: $16,781,700 to include FOIA requests and other services.
So with all of this revenue and dedicated funding, why is it still so expensive?
Summing it All Up: Why FOIA Requests are so Expensive
Because Government Agencies Suck at Handling Money. Consider the cost of the Flash Drive above. Though it is a small part of the example and the cost, it is just one way where the government probably didn’t shop around for the best price because they knew they were going to pass the cost down to the requestor anyway. Extend that to the paper they use to print requests, and the computers for everyday work, it keeps going.
Inefficient Processes. I will gladly guess that much of the FOIA process could be automated. Business rules could be created limiting the amount of human intervention. Government agencies don’t usually focus on process improvement because leadership simply isn’t wired that way. They’re more worried about maintaining or increasing budgets than improving taxpayer value.
Revenue, My Dear Watson. Clearly, there is money to be made by charging people twice; once through taxpayer funding and again through subsequent fees. Again, another place where the criminal justice system takes advantage of the accused and victims alike.
So What’s Next?
If you’re like me, and you can’t pay an exorbitant FOIA fee, the next step is to appeal. So for now, that is what I will grit my teeth and do.
In the meantime, I plan to continue writing to my representatives asking for the criminal justice reform we so badly need in Michigan and the United States.
🖤 Love what we do? Support Clutch.
