Freedom of Information requests keep Saskatoon police busy

The Saskatoon Police Service has been busy in their first year accepting Freedom of Information requests.

On Jan. 1, 2018, Saskatoon police came under the Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (LA FOIP).

LA FOIP gives people and organizations the right to request information from a local authority.

According to documents presented at the board of police commissioners meeting on Jan. 14 of this year, the Saskatoon Police Service has fielded 275 requests under LA FOIP.

That's 125 more than the Regina Police Service and almost triple the number of LA FOIP requests fielded by the City of Saskatoon.

The report says 220 requests were filed by private citizens.

"The majority of these requests were from individuals requesting files relating to insurance claims due to theft, motor vehicle damage, etc," the documents read.

"Another trend the unit was seeing were individuals requesting access to their files in order to use them in court regarding domestic or custody issues."

Media organizations filed 18 requests, according to the report.

"The vast majority of requests from the media were for statistical information, or on topics related to police that was trending across the country," the report read.

30-day deadline proves challenging

Under LA FOIP regulations, organizations must respond to requests within 30 days of receiving them. They do have the option to extend requests by an additional 30 days in some cases.

Of the 275 requests the Saskatoon Police Service received, 170 of them were completed within 30 days. Thirty-four requests fell under the 31 to 60 day period, while 11 requests were completed within 61 to 90 days.

Five requests took longer than 90 days to complete.

"From Jan. 1, 2018 to May 22, 2018, there was only one staff member processing requests," the report read, adding a junior access and privacy officer was hired on May 22, 2018.

As of Jan 14, 2019, 50 requests are still outstanding from 2018.

The report indicated those requests may not be processed yet, the applicant may still have to pay the $20 fee associated with filing a request, or the information and privacy commissioner may be reviewing the outstanding files.

When an applicant is unhappy with the response to their information request, they can ask for the information and privacy commissioner to review the file.

Three files were sent to the information and privacy commissioner in 2018. One was made publicly available, while two are still under review.

"These reviews are time consuming and often place th access and privacy officer at a halt during submissions," the report read. "Extensive case law study needs to be done in order to sufficiently respond to the [information and privacy commissioner]."

Access and privacy unit takes on more roles

As of Jan. 1, 2018, the access and privacy unit took on additional responsibilities in terms of responding to requests for information from insurance agencies, the office of residential tenancies and victims services within the ministry of justice.

Those agencies created an additional 284 requests for the unit to respond to.

As of Jan. 7, 2019, the victims services file was handed to the Saskatoon Police Service victim services unit, "as the requests could not be responded to within an ideal timeframe."