B.C. Association of Police Boards calls for fees, limits on freedom-of-information requests
The president of the British Columbia Association of Police Boards appeared before a special committee in the B.C. legislature Wednesday to advocate for charging the public up to $100 to file freedom-of-information requests to police departments.
BCAPB president Charla Huber told the all-party committee reviewing the province's freedom-of-information laws that answering FOI requests is a drain on police resources and "could be ultimately affecting public safety."
In her submissions, Huber singled out "serial FOI requesters" as especially burdensome on department resources, and suggested either limiting the number of FOI requests someone could submit in a year, or charging increasingly higher fees for repeated requests.
"Every single municipal police board has individuals that are putting in numerous FOI requests per month," Huber said. "Some departments have individuals putting in up to eight requests a month. Some of those requests could take two staff two weeks to address."
The B.C. government imposed a $10 fee for FOI requests in November and some B.C. municipalities have followed suit. However, Huber, who is also a member of the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board, said police departments have thus far been reluctant to go down that road.
"I have learned that many police departments are not charging that $10 fee at this time because they don't want to set that precedent of being the only one who is charging that $10 fee," Huber told the committee.
"Even a $10 fee for a serial FOI requester may not be enough to deter that or slow that down," she said, suggesting that "after eight or 10 requests in a year, maybe that fee increases to $50 or $100, and that will make people more selective in the information that they're seeking."
'SERIAL FOI REQUESTERS'
Stephen Harrison is likely one of the "serial FOI requesters" Huber has in mind. The Victoria man filed eight FOI requests in November, saying he had "a long-term list of ideas I thought I might get to one day."
Harrison has regularly attended Victoria police board meetings for the past four years. He says he submitted his backlog of eight FOI requests in November when he saw the province move to impose the $10 fee, opening the door to municipalities to do the same.
"I thought it best to file them before that happened," he told CTV News. "Given Huber's advocacy for fees of up to $100 per request, I feel I made the right decision."
B.C. Liberal MLA John Rustad, who is deputy chair of the committee, proposed "a different way of thinking about FOI" at the hearing Wednesday, one that would instead default to making more police records and information public.
Such proactive disclosure, Rustad said, could cut down on repeat requests for the same topic, especially when a request is dismissed or answered with incomplete information due to a department's narrow interpretation of the information being sought.
"I think that's one of the big challenges that we've seen with FOI," Rustad told the committee. "You come back. You don't get any records or you get incomplete information, so you end up putting in multiple requests to try to find this."
'A VERY REGRESSIVE ACT'
Huber said the Victoria Police Department has four full-time administrative staff dedicated to answering freedom-of-information requests, calling it a "high number of staff" that every B.C. police department struggles to budget for without some kind of additional reimbursement.
"It's a very small number of people taking up a significant amount of staff resourcing time and, specifically, not actually having a topic, just saying, 'I want this,'" Huber told the committee.
"I've heard from FOI staff that many of these individuals are not very kind to the staff. They're very demanding. They have a bullying nature when they're asking for these things," she added. "It's a big issue. I think, in police departments, particularly, there's a lot of morale issues right now with the public lens on policing. These types of incidents are not helping."
Harrison contends that filing FOI requests is one of the few ways the public can obtain detailed information about how police departments spend public money.
Sean Holman, professor of environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria, called the imposition of fees for freedom-of-information requests "a very regressive act," saying the freedom-of-information system already defaults to secrecy without the added burden of a financial penalty for those seeking public information.
"If the public cannot access the information they need to exert control and certainty over this increasingly uncertain and uncontrollable world, they will look to other forms of certainty and control," Holman said. "They will look to conspiracy theories. They will look to extremist ideologies."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Police arrest 3 Indian nationals in killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Human remains found in rural Sask. possibly a decade old, RCMP say
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Canadian doctor concerned new weight-loss drug Wegovy may be used inappropriately
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey is never quitting 'The Price Is Right'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.