Rhode Island
The law in this
state is does not clearly give requesters access to electronic information.
However, many reporters have used databases to do important stories. Access
to criminal background information is especially restricted in Rhode Island.
It is not clear from attorney general opinions whether a government agency has
to provide electronic records over a compute printout.
A 1998 public records
study, conducted by Access/RI, a nonprofit group that promotes access to public
records and public meetings, found that requests for voter lists on diskette
were met with varying responses. A few jurisdictions denied access to these
records, no matter what the form. In other jurisdictions, the list was not available
in electronic form for mundane computer-related reasons: one jurisdiction was
waiting for a new computer, another was waiting for a device to compress data,
and at another the one person in the office with the necessary knowledge was
not in at the time.
The law. The
Access to Public Records Act defines a public record to include “tapes,
. . . or other material regardless of physical form or characteristics.”
R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-2(d). It requires that “any public body which
maintains its records in a computer storage system shall provide a printout
of any data properly identified,” but “nothing herein shall be construed
as requiring a public body to reorganize, consolidate, or compile data not maintained
by the public body in the form requested at the time the request to inspect
such public records was made.” § 38-2-3(e), (f). The law requires
any public body to grant access to the records and to allow a requester to make
his own copies. § 38-2-3(a). Use of information “to solicit for commercial
purposes” or “to obtain a commercial advantage over the party furnishing
that information to the public body” is prohibited. § 38-2-6.
The APRA expressly provides that storing a record in a compute does not affect
the public record status of information. R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3(g).
Cases &
opinions. A town violated the Access to Public Records Act by charging $2.50
for three documents that were created/compiled from data maintained by a computer.
Since information was stored by a computer, and the public body would not have
been unduly burdened in providing such data, the Access to Public Records Act
requires that the requested information be compiled. R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3(f).
R.I. Att’y Gen. Advisory Op. ADV PR-00-10 (May 24, 2000).
Third parties may
not have access to information in the Bureau of Criminal Investigations database.
“If the General Assembly had intended to permit all members of the public
access to the BCI database, it would have been superfluous for the General Assembly
to enact specific provisions granting employers of identified professions access
to this information. Since the General Assembly enacted several provisions permitting
identified individuals access to BCI information, but did not codify other provisions
permitting landlords/realtors access to BCI information, we believe this evinces
the General Assembly’s intent to exempt BCI information from public disclosure
unless otherwise stated.” See R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1-4. R.I. Att’y
Gen. Advisory Op. ADV PR-00-03 (March 10, 2000). A police department may redact
the names of individual victims in initial arrest reports upon an appropriate
case-by-case balancing test where the public’s right to disclosure is weighed
against the victim’s right to privacy. R.I. Att’y Gen. Advisory Op.
ADV PR-99-02 Sept. 7, 1999.
A city cannot charge
for remote access to real estate records. A city requested an opinion on its
plan for remote computer access in the following manner: annual access fee,
$50.00; telephone line time, $.50 per minute; copy charge, $1.50 per page; and
remote user facsimile fee, $2.00 per copy. The attorney general said the “public’s
right to access public records via remote computer access presented a unique
and complicated issue that lies more appropriately with the General Assembly
than this Department. However, based upon the present codification of the APRA,
we are of the opinion that R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-4(a) serves as an appropriate
guide to address your request:” Also, “[a] public body may not charge
more than the reasonable actual cost for providing electronic records.”
R.I. Att’y Gen. Advisory Op. ADV PR 00-06, April 18, 2000.
Fees.
Charges for copies may not exceed 15 cents a copy. A “reasonable charge”
may be assessed for “search or retrieval.” Hourly search and retrieval
costs cannot exceed $15 an hour, and no fee may be charged for the first 30
minutes. The requester must be informed of such charges when the request is
made. R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-4. Individual abstracts of traffic records
are available for $16 each.
Profit-making.
No person or business entity may use information obtained from public records
to solicit for commercial purposes, or obtain a commercial advantage over the
party furnishing that information to the public body. Anyone who knowingly and
willfully violates this law is subject to punishment by a fine of not more than
five hundred dollars ($500.00) and/or imprisonment for no longer than one year
shall, in addition to any civil liability. R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-6.
Resources. Access/RI; Attorney General’s Public Records Guide and Opinions