Complainant alleged numerous Access to Public Records Act ("APRA") violations against the Department of Public Safety ("DPS"). Based on the evidence presented, this Department found that: 1) Since Complainant granted DPS's telephonic request for an extension, he is estopped from complaining that the telephonic request was improper and untimely; 2) the DPS did not violate the APRA when it asked that Complainant assert a public interest that could be balanced against the privacy interests when one of the documents requested implicated the privacy interests versus the public's interest in disclosure; 3) the DPS did not violate the APRA when it did not provide Complainant a reasonable segregable portion of the one withheld document, or alternatively, failed to indicate that the one withheld document could not be redacted; 4) the DPS violated the APRA when it improperly charged $1.20 in copying fees for eight (8) documents that were not responsive to Complainant's APRA request; and 5) the DPS did not violate the APRA when they charged a one (1) hour search and retrieval fee associated for the time expended in denying requested documents. Specifically, this Department found that a rule that would allow a public body to charge for the time expended as "part of the process" for "producing" requested documents, but not allow a public body to charge for the time expended as "part of the process" for "denying" requested documents, is at odds with DARE v. Gannon, 819 A.2d 651, 661 (R.I. 2003) and the APRA. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-7(a).
