Our View: Government copying policy stupid

Is there something about government bureaucracies that breeds stupidity? It’s a serious question, all the more so in light of a recent truly absurd situation at the Department of Corrections.

A reporter was examining public documents at DOC. In this case, it happened to be a reporter, but it could have been you. It could have been any other Alabamian. The state’s open records law gives anyone — not just reporters — the right to view public documents.

It also gives people the right to obtain copies of these public documents. An agency may charge a reasonable fee for this to cover the cost of materials and the time of an employee who might assist with the copying. There’s little to object to there.

But in this case, the reporter didn’t ask to use DOC equipment, supplies or personnel to make the copies, but instead sought simply to photograph the records with a cellphone camera. What’s wrong with that?

Nothing, any sensible organization would say. Plenty, said DOC. The department insisted that paper copies had to be made and purchased.

Why? What possible benefit to the citizenry could arise from such a ridiculously rigid policy? For the sake of a few bucks in copying charges, the department has paid a huge price in public perception.

This mandate not only doesn’t make sense, but also conflicts with a 2009 attorney general’s opinion on the use of cameras to photograph public documents. “Photographs capture what is seen with the naked eye,” that opinion notes, “and … no one can be harmed by the reproduction of records exactly as they exist.” The opinion states that there are no grounds to prohibit the use of cameras to photograph public documents unless doing so unduly interferes with office operations.

It’s too late to quarantine the Department of Corrections. The idiocy is spreading, and seems to be getting worse. The state Department of Public Safety now says it requires copies be made and paid for, with no photography allowed.

Tim McCollum, assistant attorney general at DPS, told al.com that allowing a person to photograph a public document without paying is allowing that person “to steal from the citizens of Alabama.”

What utter nonsense. Whose documents does he think they are? Who does he think pays for their creation and maintenance? They aren’t the department’s documents, they’re the people’s documents.

Trying to squeeze a handful of dollars out of taxpayers who are willing to copy documents without using agency materials, equipment or staff is astonishingly stupid.