Local law enforcement agencies follow the law when providing public records, but their policies differ in ways that can have an effect on residents' watches and pocketbooks.
The public records departments of the University Police Department, Gainesville Police Department and Alachua County Sheriff's Office are all subject to chapter 119 of the Florida state statutes, better known as the public records law.
State law requires agencies to redact certain information from public records before providing them for requests such as Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers, said Samantha Fundenburg, an ASO criminal justice technician.
The time it takes for these agencies to complete records requests, however, varies depending on what a person asks for.
For a copy of a lengthy homicide investigation report, for example, it may take more than a day or two for clerks to review the documents and redact any information that state statutes require be kept private.
"It really depends on the nature of the request and what they are requesting," said Maj. Brad Barber, UPD public information officer.
Records requests don't usually take long to fill out at the sheriff's office. People generally just need to wait a few minutes for employees to print out the report, Fundenburg said.
While GPD strives to complete requests as quickly as possible, its policy is that they may take up to 72 hours to complete, said Claudia Hendrix, records coordinator and manager of the GPD records division.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, it doesn't take 72 hours or more to complete a request, she said.
It becomes stressful for employees when someone walks into the GPD office and asks for a report he or she needs to present in court that day. The employees then feel the need to obtain those records immediately, despite a backlog of other requests.
"Their crisis could become your crisis," Hendrix said. "There is that point in GPD where we can say it could take 72 hours."
Barber didn't provide a specific time frame typical of completing records requests at UPD, but he said it depends on the request and that efforts are made to provide information as quickly as possible.
Florida law permits agencies to charge for requests, and UPD, GPD and ASO have different policies for these fees.
At ASO, people requesting case reports may have to pay some fees, although crash reports and arrest records are provided for free, Fundenburg said.
GPD also has a 15-cent-per-page fee, but employees can generally charge at their discretion after a report passes the seven-page mark, Hendrix said. GPD also charges a flat fee of $1 for all incident and accident reports.
Public records requests may require similar fees through UPD, although it depends on the type and extent of the request, Barber said.
"We're not out here to make money on this," he said. "This is an issue where we're guided by the state statute."
