Journalists file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with federal, state, and local government agencies all the time. Often, but not always, the responding government agencies will charge for collecting the information. Sunshine Review, a non-profit organization, reports that the average price tag governments quote them for their FOIA requests is $17. But not the Miami-Dade Police Department. When Sunshine Review asked them for some salary and benefit information, the Miami-Dade Police Department demanded $22,000.
“Sunshine Review has never objected to paying a reasonable costs of fulfilling information requests, however, charging $22,000 hardly seems justified. Especially when you consider that many of Miami-Dade’s surrounding counties offered their information to us for free,” Sunshine Review President Michael Barnhart said in a release. Here is the data which Sunshine Review requested:
- Salaries over $150K
- Benefits for people with salaries over $150K
- Overtime paid to retiring personnel 2008-2011
- Number of department-issued cell phones from January 1, 2008 to January 1, 2011
- Number of department-issued personal cars for take-home use
Sunshine Review is a non-partisan organization dedicated to to state and local government transparency. Their Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares transparency information on more than 5,000 state and local governments. The group has never encountered a local government that guards its spending practices as closely as the Miami-Dade Police Department. “Our role at Sunshine Review is to promote government transparency and accountability. Thankfully, numerous other cities have answered our FOIA without this unreasonable price tag. We hope that with public pressure, Miami-Dade Police will reduce their fee to a more manageable number,” Barnhart said.
