Surge in Freedom of Information requests to police, shortage of staff blamed for slow response rate

Dragging response rate for FOIs points to a need for additional resources, says Ontario’s privacy commissioner.

Thestar.com
Feb. 17, 2015
By Wendy Gillies


Facing a dramatic surge in requests, Toronto police compliance with response time requirements under Freedom of Information legislation hit a 10-year low in 2014 - and the dragging response rate points to a need for additional resources, says Ontario’s privacy commissioner.

According to data submitted to the Toronto Police Services Board in a recent report by Chief Bill Blair, Toronto police met the mandated FOI response deadline of 30 days in 52 per cent of requests last year.

That’s nearly a 30 per cent drop from 2005 - when 80 per cent of FOI requests were completed within the 30-day timeframe - and down almost 15 per cent from 2013, which saw a compliance rate of 65 per cent.

The lagging response rate comes amid a staggering 125 per cent increase in FOI requests filed to Toronto police in the last decade, ballooning from just over 2,500 in 2005 to 5,600 in 2014.

Brian Beamish, the acting Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, said Toronto police have received more requests in recent years than any other municipal institution in Ontario.

Citing staffing challenges Blair highlights in his report - including a static number of analysts who cannot keep up with the demand - Beamish called on the Toronto Police Services Board to consider providing additional resources to better serve the public and meet legislative obligations.

“The Toronto Police Service’s compliance rate is of concern and needs to be addressed,” Beamish said in a statement to the Star Tuesday.

“The public has the right to request access to government-held information, including general records and records containing their own personal information. This is a vital aspect of open and accountable government.”

But Alok Mukherjee, chair of the police board, said “throwing more resources” at perceived deficiencies is not the answer - “especially in areas that are not the core function of the organization.”

“We will need to see if there is an issue and if there is, whether the system in place needs to be reviewed,” he said.

In Blair’s report - submitted to the police board in advance of its Thursday meeting - he cites the increase in requests and staffing difficulties for delays in responding to requests, which can range from citizen demands for personal data to media inqueries to applications from lawyers and more.

The unit responsible for responding to FOI requests employs nine analysts and one permanent clerk, who attends to administrative duties. Two temporary clerk positions were created to help ease the growing workload, but there is high turnover because these employees continue to seek permanent positions, Blair wrote.

Last year, six people cycled through the two positions, and none are there today.

“(The unit) continues to lose staff just at the point where they are trained and are actively assisting in streamlining the FOI process,” Blair writes, adding that when these temporary clerks are not available, administrative work is absorbed by analysts.

Of the total 5,671 requests submitted to Toronto police in 2014, 4,626 were ultimately completed.

Though noting no formal study has been done, Blair writes that the increasing number of FOI requests Toronto police have been receiving could be a result of “growing public awareness of the act, its processes and its inherent ease of access ($5 processing fee).”

“In 2014 particularly, the media gave much attention to all levels of government with respect to transparency, filing (FOI) requests and lack of access,” Blair notes in the letter.

The surge appears to be partly due to citizens requesting information about themselves: in 2014, the number of personal requests increased 12 per cent over 2013.