Releasing of police files slow and costly
Backlog grows amid ‘labor intensive’ process
Skye Seipp
Austin American-Statesman USA TODAY NETWORK
Late last summer, the city began to release once-secret Austin Police Department personnel records.
Known colloquially as the “G-file,” the records detail internal investigations into alleged officer misconduct that didn’t result in disciplinary action — and ones where the offending officer resigned in lieu of sanctions. The road to the public release of Gfile records was long and contentious. It culminated in an Aug. 30 ruling by a state District Court judge that found the city had failed to comply with a 2023 measure overwhelmingly approved by Austin voters that said the Police Department could no longer hide the records.
Soon after, the requests started pouring in from citizens, advocates and the media for G-file records. But getting ahold of the documents has proven difficult.
The city has been slow to fulfill requests and billed some requesters eye-popping sums to prepare the records. The city, for example, quoted the American-Statesman $1,623 for documents related to one police officer. Local NBC affiliate KXAN, which requested records for all 1,510 current police officers, was quoted $ 27,000.
But one of the state’s leading public information experts says the seemingly large price tags might be warranted given the scope of the job.
INSIDE
How to request once-secret Austin Police Department personnel records. 6A
“The key is: Don’t be scared off by a large cost estimate,” said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
Why are the quotes so high?
The main reason behind the big charges is the sheer volume of the records, said Assistant City Attorney Robyn Katz, who is working with the Austin Police Department to fulfill requests for G-file records.
Police Department spokesperson Anna Sabana said she couldn’t say for certain how many G-file records exist. But the ones the Statesman requested for the lone officer contained nearly 12,500 pages. The G-file, which technically no longer exists as its use has been banned, also contains an untold number of body-worn camera footage and audio recordings.
Katz also said many of the paper records have not been digitized, so the staff has to locate and scan them. And under the Texas Public Information Act, city staff must review records that might contain confidential information, such as Social Security numbers, and redact that information.
The act also contains a litany of exceptions that allow public agencies to withhold information, including when records are related to an ongoing criminal investigation.
Compiling G-file records is “really labor intensive,” Katz said.
Sabana said the Police Department has received so many requests in the past two months that it added a special option for “discipline records” on its open records request site.
The Police Department was already struggling to fulfill open records requests. Last year, a city audit found the department had a backlog of 20,000 requests. That has since grown to 26,521, Sabana said.
Last month, Austin City Council Members José “Chito” Vela and Vanessa Fuentes called on city staffers to figure out a way to release G-file records more quickly and cheaply, acknowledging that “compiling, reviewing and redacting decades worth of records could take months if not years and cost the requester quite a sum of money.”
“To facilitate a quicker release of a smaller portion of the requested materials, could staff focus on compiling, reviewing and redacting the most recent years of G-file records in order to rapidly release them to the requestors?” the council members wrote on a message board. “This would demonstrate the City’s commitment to transparency and give the public an initial look into what the formerly confidential records contain.”
City spokesperson Erik Johnson said the city is “quickly” taking measures to address the issue.
“Additional staffing has been authorized and employees are being trained,” he said. “Staff is implementing improvements in the areas of digitization and software. These processes are occurring quickly and will continue to improve the ability to deliver on requests as rapidly as possible over time.”
Police reform activists have argued for years that the Police Department shouldn’t be allowed to keep the records private because it encourages the masking of controversial misconduct investigations. (Records related to internal investigations that result in discipline have always been public.) The Austin police union has maintained that releasing G-file records could harm an officer’s reputation.
But even the advocacy group that successfully pushed for G-file records to be made public — through a ballot measure and a lawsuit — isn’t too worried about the barriers to releasing the records.
Equity Action Senior Adviser Kathy Mitchell said the group didn’t expect the city to begin releasing G-file records all “willy-nilly.”
“At least now it’s on a case-by-case basis,” she said. Previously, the records were “all permanently sealed forever.”
Why do you have to pay for ‘public’ information?
Texas has one of the strongest open records laws in the country, meaning that it is easier here than in other states for citizens to obtain information from taxpayer-funded agencies.
Still, the Texas Public Information Act allows those agencies to charge requesters for the time, labor and resources required to compile and review records before releasing them.
Shannon said that most charges, including in the case of the G-file records, are legitimate though sometimes they seem “unusually high.” That can make it seem like the office is either trying to make a profit or thwart the request, she said.
“They are just supposed to be recouping their cost,” she said. “They are not supposed to be using this as a cash machine.”
Shannon said that if you receive a large bill, you should consider whether your request was too broad and try narrowing it. If you feel you are still being overcharged, you can submit a cost complaint to the Texas Attorney General’s Open Records Division.
How much agencies can charge requesters is outlined in Chapter 70 of the Texas Administrative Code. That includes a discretionary 20% overhead charge, which can inflate an already large bill.
The city of Austin and the Police Department always add this charge to open records bills. In a written statement, the city said it does this to cover the “indirect costs” of responding to requests, including utility bills and equipment maintenance.
“Additional staffing has been authorized and employees are being trained. Staff is implementing improvements in the areas of digitization and software. These processes are occurring quickly and will continue to improve the ability to deliver on requests as rapidly as possible over time.”
Erik Johnson
City of Austin spokesperson
