"It should just be a flat fee." Pria DuPont had sticker shock when she saw an invoice for Avondale police internal investigation records.
She wanted the records that reviewed how officers responded to a domestic violence situation at her home in 2023. She was asked to pay $1,370, mostly for police body-cam video clips. The invoice listed 38 videos at $35 each. She didn't pay.
"This is ridiculous because you can't pick how many officers are going to respond and how many body cam footages they're going to be there," DuPont said. She added that she had previously paid for and received some police body-cam video from the day the officers came to her house.
New Law sets $46 Limit
A 2023 Arizona state law allowed law enforcement agencies to charge up to $46 "per video hour reviewed" to the public seeking body camera or other police video.
Some police situations involve dozens of officers and can result in hundreds of hours of footage.
Mesa's and Glendale's police chiefs testified in favor of the $46-per-hour bill at a 2023 state House hearing and explained that processing such requests is a costly and time-consuming task.
"In our jurisdiction, we have a two-year wait for somebody to get body-worn camera footage after a request through our records division," Mesa Chief Ken Cost said. "We spend about 370 hours per month on body-worn camera footage."
"We weren't expecting the influx of requests that we had, also not knowing the time that it would take for redactions," said then-Glendale Chief Chris Briggs.
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Some agencies, including Mesa and Gilbert police departments, charge the full fee. Other departments have left their fees unchanged. The Phoenix Police Department still charges $4 for all the body-camera footage for an entire case.
It's unclear how many departments have used higher fees to pay more people to process video or reduce wait times. But, advocates for open government say the total charge for video can deter people from accessing public records and reduce government transparency.
"We need fewer barriers to timely access to important records, not more barriers," Gunita Singh, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told ABC15 in an interview last month.
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"Allowing the state to charge such exorbitant amounts of money for editing that kind of footage, it really does threaten public access to crucial government records, because those fees can obviously serve as a deterrent," Singh said.
Police Video Fees Nationwide
The ABC15 Investigators checked to see what police agencies in other states charge for police body-cam video and found the fees vary widely.
In Ohio, a new law, passed this year, will allow departments to charge up to $75 per hour to redact police video. This state had a maximum charge of $750.
In Massachusetts, the Boston Police Department charges $25 per hour of staff time to process video requests, but the first two hours are free.
In Texas, police agencies can charge a $10 fee to retrieve the video, plus $1 per minute of actual footage.
In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Police Department charges $38 per hour to locate the footage and nearly $43 per hour of staff time for redacting.
In Illinois, the Chicago Police Department provides police body-worn camera video for free.
Avondale Revises Invoice
In Arizona, crime victims and criminal defendants can receive police records for their cases free of charge, but DuPont did not fit into either category since Avondale police arrested her, but criminal charges were dropped just days later.
DuPont later filed a notice of claim, the precursor to a lawsuit, against the Avondale Police Department. She alleged that her arrest was "improper" and she was injured by the handcuffs. Since her arrest, she saw a neurologist and had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and another condition.
After she contacted ABC15 last month about the $1,370 invoice, the ABC15 Investigators emailed an Avondale police spokesperson with questions.
The department responded that there was an error in their calculations because there were only seven body-cam videos, not 38. The police spokesperson said the invoice has been reissued for $245.
The department declined to comment on DuPont's claims that her constitutional rights were violated and the handcuffs resulted in lasting injuries.
Did you have trouble obtaining public records? We want to hear from you. You can reach ABC15 Senior Investigator Melissa Blasius by email at melissa.blasius@abc15.com or call 602-803-2506. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @MelissaBlasius or Facebook.
