--- title: Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for... description: The city of Eugene, Oregon told local outlet Double Sided Media it would cost $2,484,599.04 and 44,816 hours of staff time to fulfill a public records request... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop | daily.dev og:description: The city of Eugene, Oregon told local outlet Double Sided Media it would cost $2,484,599.04 and 44,816 hours of staff time to fulfill a public records request... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/YugGjGmbx.png og:image:alt: Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The city of Eugene, Oregon told local outlet Double Sided Media it would cost $2,484,599.04 and 44,816 hours of staff time to fulfill a public records request about officer Justin Peckels, who punched a resident during a traffic stop. A separate request about former officer Eric Klinko was quoted at $195,869.52, bringing the combined estimate to nearly $2.7 million. The city justified the cost by claiming it must search records of all city employees, past and present, rather than targeted custodians. Double Sided Media is appealing the fee, while the department recently signed a $342,000 contract for nearly 60 AI-powered Flock license plate readers. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much did Eugene Police Department charge for records about one officer's alleged misconduct? Eugene Police Department estimated $2,484,599.04 and at least 44,816 staff hours to process a public records request about officer Justin Peckels, filed by local outlet Double Sided Media. The department justified this by claiming it needed to search records of all city employees, past and present, rather than targeted custodians. A separate request about former officer Eric Klinko was quoted at $195,869.52. _Journalists tracking government transparency fights follow public records disputes like this on daily.dev._ ### Are there other examples of government agencies charging extremely high fees for public records requests? Yes, several federal agencies have issued similarly exorbitant estimates. In 2015, the Department of Defense told a FOIA requester that fulfilling a request on device-preservation tools would take 15 million hours and cost $660 million. The same year, the DEA quoted $1.46 million for records on its role in capturing cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, and in 2019 the Army tried to charge $300,000 for military base water test results before waiving the fee after backlash. _Anyone researching how agencies use fee estimates to stonewall requests can keep tabs on these cases via daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 42 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-25). **TL;DR:** Commenters broadly see the $2.5M quote as an absurd stalling tactic by a police department, drawing parallels to other agencies that slow-walk or overprice public records requests, though a few push back that delays aren't always deliberate and note the article omits key details about the request's scope. **Sentiment:** 2% positive · 18% mixed · 80% skeptical **The case for** - Some argue delays can stem from understaffing, unclear ownership of requests, and genuine difficulty searching scattered records rather than bad faith. - One commenter notes a clarifying follow-up article suggests the request was more narrowly scoped than the headline figure implies. **The pushback** - Many see the record-breaking fee and hour estimate as a deliberate tactic to bury or deter the request rather than a genuine good-faith estimate. - Commenters compare this to widespread patterns of agencies slow-walking or cost-gouging public records requests across the US. - Several suspect the city anticipates costly misconduct settlements and may be trying to protect itself from liability or reputational damage. - Some question why local elected officials and institutions seem unable or unwilling to rein in police department behavior. - One commenter points out the article itself fails to specify exactly what the request covered, which makes judging the fee's legitimacy harder. **By community** - hackernews (heated): Most see the fee as evidence of institutional stonewalling and corruption, but there's real pushback debating whether delays are deliberate obstruction or just bureaucratic dysfunction, plus a side debate on whether US democracy/voting can fix police accountability compared to UK FOIA processes. **Hottest debate:** Whether the extreme delays and fees reflect deliberate corruption/obstruction by the department versus ordinary bureaucratic understaffing and process failures. **Open questions** - What exactly was the precise scope of the original records request, since the article doesn't specify it? - Is there an independent body in the US analogous to the UK's ICO/Ombudsman that can effectively compel compliance with public records law? - Will the city's quoted search methodology (searching all employees rather than targeted custodians) hold up to legal challenge? **Highlights** > This story gets even more interesting when you pull out other sources: > During a Thursday, Oct. 8, meeting of the Eugene Police Commission, Chief Chris Skinner said: “We reached out to the requester, gave them a heads-up that it was going to be a big number, and asked them if they’d like to collaborate with us on how they can narrow their scope, change their scope, get them to yes on something to release that, and they chose not to do that.” But James Croxton, editor-in-chief for Double Sided Media, in an email Friday to Lookout Eugene-Springfield said police never made such an offer, describing how managing editor Mary Bell called to follow up on the initial request and was told by a records supervisor that the number of potentially responsive documents was 2.6 million. “The call lasted for 5 minutes and 11 seconds and there was no offer to help narrow the scope or anything of the sort,” Croxton said Friday. (Source - https://lookouteugene-springfield.com/story/justice/2026/10/...) — Or a further quote from that article says: > Double Sided Media sought “[all] completed internal affairs complaints, intake logs, investigative summaries, witness interviews, audio/video evidence logs, and disciplinary notices issued to or involving Justin Peckels where findings of misconduct were ‘sustained,’” with the request covering an eight-year time period, June 18, 2018, through July 30, 2026. The request also sought “[a]ll internal and external communications, correspondence, and logs sent, received, or maintained by EPD’s executive staff — specifically including Police Chief Chris Skinner and Deputy Chief — dated between June 18, 2018, and July 30, 2026, regarding any misconduct investigations, internal status, negotiations, discipline, stipulation, or certification of Justin Peckels.” — Contrast that with this statement from the posted article: > The city’s response is beyond belief. In its response to the request on Monday, the Eugene Police Department claimed searching for records and processing the request would take at least 44,816 hours of staff time and cost approximately $2,484,599.04. (A separate request by the outlet for similar records concerning a former police officer, Eric Klinko, was met with a comparatively modest estimate of $195,869.52, for a grand total of nearly $2.7 million for both requests.) — > — [hluska on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50235420) > This is comparatively a bargain compared to what the DoD wanted to charge: > In 2015, the Department of Defense told a Freedom of Information Act requester, who was asking for records on tools used to preserve data on seized devices, that fulfilling their request would take 15 million hours and cost $660 million. (15 million hours = over 1700 years) > — [dabinat on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50235284) > > the Eugene Police Department claimed searching for records and processing the request would take at least 44,816 hours of staff time and cost approximately $2,484,599.04. 44k hours is ~21 years. Beyond absurd > — [cactacea on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50234409) > Any corrupt organization anywhere will do its very best to protect itself from reputational loss whenever possible. It just happens that in some societies, the amount of protection those organizations can provide to themselves without quick consequences is much higher than in others. In the US, a lot of supposed government organizations are basically immune to pressure from elected officials. A police department can do more to harm the standing of a mayor than the mayor can do to said department. In fact, sometimes you even have state involvement to make sure the mayor looks bad. See, for instance, the wonder of the St Louis Police Department. The state votes in a different way than the city, and the state passed laws to take over the local police department. Thus they control budgets and leadership, even though the actual taxpayers that foot the bill are local. As you might imagine, this leads to very strange incentives. > — [hibikir on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50235227) > They probably know their bad cops are going to end up costing them at least $2.5mil in fines and settlements. > — [leptons on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50234718) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50234232) · 146 points · 42 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Texas city wants $2.3M for public records on police Flock use](https://daily.dev/posts/texas-city-wants-2-3m-for-public-records-on-police-flock-use-uqaieozq6) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Everett shuts down Flock camera network after judge rules footage is public record](https://daily.dev/posts/everett-shuts-down-flock-camera-network-after-judge-rules-footage-is-public-record-udd0xtjhd) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK rail cops' £320K face-scanning spree nets zero matches](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-rail-cops-320k-face-scanning-spree-nets-zero-matches-2h2wwjyui) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A California city just approved $3.15M in police drones that respond to 911 calls in 30 seconds](https://daily.dev/posts/a-california-city-just-approved-3-15m-in-police-drones-that-respond-to-911-calls-in-30-seconds-hjgpaqvla) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx"},"datePublished":"2026-10-25T18:38:01.735Z","dateModified":"2026-10-25T20:09:16.194Z","description":"The city of Eugene, Oregon told local outlet Double Sided Media it would cost $2,484,599.04 and 44,816 hours of staff time to fulfill a public records request...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b41a14cbe56ebcb31f1eb980149607ee?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b41a14cbe56ebcb31f1eb980149607ee?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/oregon-police-are-charging-a-local-news-outlet-2-5m-for-records-about-one-cop-yuggjgmbx#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much did Eugene Police Department charge for records about one officer's alleged misconduct?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Eugene Police Department estimated $2,484,599.04 and at least 44,816 staff hours to process a public records request about officer Justin Peckels, filed by local outlet Double Sided Media. The department justified this by claiming it needed to search records of all city employees, past and present, rather than targeted custodians. A separate request about former officer Eric Klinko was quoted at $195,869.52. Journalists tracking government transparency fights follow public records disputes like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Are there other examples of government agencies charging extremely high fees for public records requests?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, several federal agencies have issued similarly exorbitant estimates. In 2015, the Department of Defense told a FOIA requester that fulfilling a request on device-preservation tools would take 15 million hours and cost $660 million. The same year, the DEA quoted $1.46 million for records on its role in capturing cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, and in 2019 the Army tried to charge $300,000 for military base water test results before waiving the fee after backlash. Anyone researching how agencies use fee estimates to stonewall requests can keep tabs on these cases via daily.dev."}}]} ```