Judge Orders Tacoma to Pay $297,000 for (FOIA) Records Violations

According to KIRO7 News (June 28, 2018) - A Pierce County judge has ordered the city of Tacoma to pay nearly $300,000 for failing to turn over documents in response to a public records request.

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sued in 2016 on behalf of two church leaders and a former city council candidate who sought records related to the police department's use of "StingRays," cell site simulators that investigators can use to locate phones.

The plaintiffs said they were concerned about the effect of police surveillance in the community.
Superior Court Judge Helen Whitener said the department unreasonably withheld the documents, sometimes without even citing an exception to the state Public Records Act. She ordered the city to pay about $182,000 in fines, $110,000 in legal fees and $5,000 in other costs.
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Failure to disclose, or unreasonable delays in disclosing, records as required under FOIA can be very costly for the violating agency. Too often agencies fail to disclose records using a law enforcement exemption, where no true exemption exists.

Exemption (7)(a), of the FOIA authorizes the withholding of "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that production of such law enforcement records or information . . . could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings" (see Robinson v. Dep't of Justice, No. 00-11182, slip op. at 8 n.5 (11th Cir. Mar. 15, 2001)).

Even in the case of an open investigation, the agency must justify why release of a record could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. The law enforcement exemption cannot be used as a means of blanket denials for law enforcement records.

(I note that WA State public records laws are not exactly the same as the Federal FOIA, but the concept is generally the same with what must be released and what may be withheld.)

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