That's what the county was charging anyone who wanted to obtain a police incident or accident report. Those fees have now been significantly reduced.

"The fee will now be 50 cents per page as it is with every other county agency," said Don Mohler, a county spokesman.

Fred Homan, the county administrative officer, reviewed the charges after Patuxent Publishing Co., the publisher of this newspaper, questioned the fees. The county will also stop requiring persons requesting police reports to explain in writing why they want the report.

The request for a review was not made as part of any records request made by the paper.

The County Charter requires the county administrative officer to set such fees. The fees for the police reports have been "in place for many years," said Mohler.

The state Public Information Act allows government agencies to assess reasonable charges for records requests. The attorney general's guide to the Act defines reasonable costs as having a relationship with the recovery of actual costs related to producing the record with the first two hours of search and review provided without charge.

The police department releases about 19,000 reports annually to individuals and insurance companies, according to an estimate provided by Bill Toohey, a police spokesman.

When asked if the county would offer refunds to anyone who purchased a report at the higher price, Mohler would only say the county "is moving forward from this point on with the reduced charges."

"They should only be charging for the duplication of the report," said Jim Lee, chairman of the Society of Professional Journalists Sunshine Committee for Maryland. "They should run it through the copy machine and 50 cents should be sufficient to cover that."

Toohey said the changes would be made as fast as possible.

The county appears to be moving to drop a requirement on the police department's Web site that requires an explanation of why a person is requesting a record. State law prohibits asking that question.

Both Mohler and Toohey were unable to say whether the requirement would be removed or altered in some way.

"This is developing very fast," Toohey said.

Other jurisdictions have similar policies requiring explanations.

A spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police said he believed reports were only issued to those named in the report.

Jeanette Gamble, a records manager for the Harford County Sheriff's Department, said the explanation is required. Gamble described a tiered system where some people get everything, some get partial information and others would have their requests denied.

"Say there is a domestic and a neighbor requests a report," Gamble said. "I'd give them call-for-service information but not the report."

Gamble said the neighbor is not entitled to the report. She could not explain how the law allowed her to deny a request based on her example. When asked if the report was a public record, she replied "I don't know."

Victims, suspects and the media would likely receive a full report, Gamble said.

Sherry Llewellyn, a spokeswoman for the Howard County Police Department, said persons who request reports are asked to explain why they want a report. Sometimes that information is used as a basis for denying a request, she said.

Flat fee charges and requiring the public to explain why they want a record are not uncommon in several neighboring jurisdictions.

Howard County charges a $5 flat fee for reports and makes some accident reports available online through a private company.

Harford County has a sliding scale charge based on number of pages copied. One to nine copies for example, cost a flat $5 fee.

When a reporter pointed out that the $5 fee seemed excessive for one copy, Monica Worrell, a spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff's department said a person ordering nine pages was "getting a deal. It all depends on if you are a 'glass is half full' or 'glass is half empty' kind of person."

Bryan P. Sears is political editor for Patuxent Publishing Co.'s Baltimore County papers.

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