City of San Antonio issues $81,000 cost estimate for open records request of police emails

Click through the gallery to see photos of San Antonio Police Department officers, Bexar County sheriff's deputies and San Antonio firefighters who were suspended in 2015. Click through the gallery to see photos of San Antonio Police Department officers, Bexar County sheriff's deputies and San Antonio firefighters who were suspended in 2015. Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office Image 1 of / 108 Caption Close City of San Antonio issues $81,000 cost estimate for open records request of police emails 1 / 108 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — The City of San Antonio issued an $81,333 cost estimate Monday in response to an open records request from mySA.com asking for emails regarding suspensions within the San Antonio Police Department.

City legal officials said approximately 5,422 hours of labor at $15 an hour is needed to complete the request, which was filed Oct. 16, 2015 under the Texas Public Information Act.

The requested information includes all emails sent or received by SAPD employees that mentioned suspensions of officers or coverage of those suspensions by the Express-News and mySA.com in 2015.

City officials said the police department's email system does not have a function to search for specific terms across inboxes.

Joe Larsen, a Houston First Amendment lawyer and board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said the figure is "crazy and absurd" and "probably overblown."

"It wouldn't be the first time a high estimate was meant to scare off a reporter," he said. "It's a common ploy agencies use to defeat a request of public information" they don't want released.

Jeff Coyle, director of government and public affairs for the city, said the request is "massive" and the city does not have "the capability to bulk-search the entire email network for keywords."

"We take exception to the claim that this is ‘a ploy to defeat a request of public information,’" he said. "We gave the reporter the option of narrowing the request to reduce the time it would take to provide the information he wanted, and consequently the cost, and he chose not to do so.”

A letter disputing the costs and asking for more details regarding the email system was sent to the city by mySA.com Wednesday.

The request follows coverage on dozens of police officer and firefighter suspensions in San Antonio, which are requested and reported monthly dating back to February of this year (links to coverage at bottom of story).

Below is the city's response, detailing the basis of the cost estimate.

"There are approximately 2,711 SAPD employees. The ITS Department would have to pull all SAPD mailboxes and then transfer those mailboxes onto a designated City employee's computer. The estimated cost is only for the amount of time it would take for the ITS Department to pull all the SAPD mailboxes and then transfer those mailboxes onto the designated City employee's computer. That City employee would then have to enter the requested search terms into each individual mailbox. After all e-mails from all mailboxes were locate, then the employee would have to review for confidential information. Some of the e-mails may need to be sent to the Attorney General's Office and other e-mails may require redactions... There could be an additional labor cost for those e-mails."

Larsen said an "ancient" email system that doesn't allow for search is also likely a security threat.

"Exactly which decade are the people living in?" he said. "One of the largest cities in the nation should have a somewhat modern email service that allows for searches."

Under the Texas Public Information Act, a governmental agency is allowed to charge "an amount that reasonably includes all costs for producing" public records, but must provide an itemized cost estimate if it exceeds $40.

Requestors are allowed to file a complaint regarding the costs to the attorney general or change the request in an effort to lower the charge.

Other journalists have been charged five-to-six figures for requests this year in Texas, including the Texas Observer's Alexa Garcia-Ditta, who said she was slapped with a $12,000 estimate on crime victim compensation fund claims from the Attorney General's Office.

Houston Chronicle reporter Brian Rosenthal racked up a $410,000 estimate for Department of Public Safety emails. He said he was forced to withdraw the request.

Larsen said the largest cost estimate he'd ever seen was nearly $1 million, which was submitted to the Dallas Morning News in 2010 by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Suspension coverage:

kparker@mysa.com

Twitter: @KoltenParker