Tumwater Police Department dealing with higher requests for public records

Requests for public records are on the rise and taking longer to process at the Tumwater Police Department, largely because of body-worn cameras.

The police department started using body-worn cameras from Axon Enterprises Inc. in March.

The rollout of the cameras has allowed better transparency in police operations, but has also led to more recorded footage requests under state public records laws.  

Police Chief Carlos Quiles said the department now receives an average of 127 public records requests per month, with body-worn camera footage accounting for 92 percent.  

Quiles delivered an update to the Tumwater Public Health and Safety Committee at a meeting on Oct. 7.  

He noted along with the higher volume, processing the requests take additional time because state law mandates removal of private or sensitive information before releasing a video. 

Due to the extra labor involved, the department now takes an average of 3.5 days to fulfill each public disclosure request. 

“This is the first time in the history of the police department where we've been that delayed on fulfilling public disclosure requests,” Quiles said. “Before body-worn camera video, we were closing requests on average in less than a day.” 

Proposed fee structure 

To help offset the costs related to the work, Quiles said state law allows police departments to recover the costs of redaction from people who are not directly involved in an incident. 

The police department is proposing a fee structure for such individuals. 

Police Records Supervisor Ashleigh Clark staff evaluated rates in Olympia and Lacey, and used a formula based on the salary and benefits of a new police record specialist.  

The formula accounts for monthly license fees associated with Axon’s software, which helps with redaction. 

The total costs divided by the average working minutes yielded a base rate of $0.89 per minute. Except for exempted individuals, requesters will have to pay an initial deposit of the rate multiplied by two minutes of staff time.  

Clark explained two minutes is based on national data, showing a single redaction in a one-minute video takes two to five minutes of work. 

The Olympia Police Department has a lower rate of $0.75 per minute. Clark said Olympia used different wage rates and opted out of Axon’s video redaction software. 

Quiles said the proposed fee represents the lowest feasible cost recovery model. 

“We were very thoughtful on our approach,” he said. “We're charging the bare minimum. This is not going to recover the actual amount of staff time it takes — it's just going to help offset it.” 

‘No room for error’ 

To demonstrate why the work takes so much time, Clark cited an example of a 3.5-minute clip taken from a 17-minute video involving a juvenile. 

The clipped video required 23 separate redactions, which took three hours to complete. 

“These redactions vary, so it can be a person's face, it can be audio, it can be reflections in glass, it can be a cellphone, a computer screen,” Clark said.  

“The type of work that's going into this isn't always so straightforward and just blurring an entire screen. It's really nuanced depending on what is in that actual footage.” 

Clark further emphasized the legal risks if the work is not done correctly. 

“Because these videos are so detailed and there's so much sensitive information and content of graphic nature, we have to go frame by frame in a video. We have no room for error, as it can open up lawsuits," she said.

At the end of the presentation, the committee agreed to advance the fee structure to the city council as part of its agenda on Oct. 20. A public hearing will be held before the council considers approving the fees.